


Feudal World

by sankontesu



Category: InuYasha - A Feudal Fairy Tale
Genre: F/M, jurassicworld!au, jurassicworldAU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-06-26
Updated: 2016-06-06
Packaged: 2018-04-06 07:01:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 43,111
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4212375
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sankontesu/pseuds/sankontesu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's a Jurassic World AU, Inuyasha style. Demons went extinct years ago but with new technology we've managed to intertwine their DNA with existing animal's genome and turn them into larger than life creatures. Welcome to Feudal World, and please watch your step.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: So here we are. I posted something on tumblr about wanting nothing more but to see Inuyasha riding dirty with his killer dog squad, the same way Christ Pratt did with his raptors, and I can't just write a piece of a story, I have to go on and write the whole thing. I'm doing this mostly for myself because I love the idea, but hopefully I stick with it. Hopefully ya'll enjoy it too, okay?

Blanket disclaimer: I don't own anything Inuyasha or Jurassic Park/Jurassic World.

**Prologue**

_Bury the Infant_

There was a consistent humming that he wanted to squash under his fist, the need to destroy overwhelming him. Then there was a beeping and a horrendous smell that could only be described by a stinging sensation. Four pair of crimson eyes snapped open and he uncomfortably revolved in his cold sac. The dry air seeping through the opening and rendering his limbs to feel sticky and slimy.

"He's growing at an accelerated rate."

The voice was obnoxious and clear, directed at another body in the room.

"What about his brother?" This voice sounded like the steady beating of his heart. Music, to his now operative ears.

"He's stayed constant, showing little to no movement. But the vitals show that he's alive."

A tall figure approached, wearing a long white lab coat that almost reached the tiled floor. The figure was beautiful, and the creature that hung in his sac wanted nothing more to take her apart and feast on her flesh. It reached out a bulbous limb but a glass window stopped his endeavor. He tried to screech in frustration but the noise died in his throat. He was yet too weak. He needed substance. He needed to grow.

"What have you decided to name him?" The tall body looked into the crimson eyes, somehow taking the focus of all eight of them into her mere two.

"Naraku."

"And the brother?"

"Onigumo."

At the mention of his twin the creature lazily fell out of his sac onto the cold floor in his container and began to slink towards it, determined.

"Demon spider," The musical voice rolled the name on her tongue like a precious marble. "And hell."

She peered at the black void less creature from behind the glass cage. It was sprouting what looked like course fur on its back. It had four functioning limbs and a trail of tentacles that protruded from its back end like a tail. Its snout was almost human-like but retaining that animal indentation, small fangs curving down over its jaw, growing still.

"Very fitting." She decided just before the hellish looking mass of black closed his jaws over his brother, consuming him.


	2. Nine to Survival Job

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Enter Inuyasha and the gals

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Why am I doing this. My first Inuyasha AU. It's shitty but I'm incapable of stopping myself.

**Nine to Survival Job**

The dog-eared half demon stared down at his animals in their captivity that smelled of bone and wilderness, narrowing his eyes and ignoring his own stench as he focused all his attention on the snarling beasts. The tropical environment of the island was suffocating and he had missed his homeland terribly even before he had touched his bare feet to the black soil of the ground, bits of sand and palm tree littering the dirt. His sweat made the material on his back cling to him and made him restless. The vest around his chest was constricting, restrictive. He wanted to take it off badly but the vest was on him to protect against 5 inch fangs from sinking into his heart without warning. Wild golden eyes found his and he surrendered his focus to the largest of the white animals below him, Kaze. She followed his every movement, waiting for any signal to rebel against.

"Inuyasha!"

He turned away from the iron rails under his clawed hands and faced the owner of the voice, his ears following the annoyed growling from the female creature below them.

"Miroku," He acknowledged folding his arms, straining the material against his biceps even more than before, "What do you want? I'm in the middle of-"

"Training, yeah I noticed," The pony-tailed man uneasily looked down at the pen.

"Not training," Inuyasha corrected propping up a booted foot against the rails opposite of him. "Bonding."

"Riiiight," Miroku exaggerated leaning against the iron banister and glancing at the barking animals underneath him. "Well I just wanted to let you know that your new zookeeper assistant just arrived. She's getting changed, but she'll be waiting for you below. Oh. And she's super cute." He finished with a devilish grin and waggling eyebrows.

The half-demon rolled his eyes and shook his head in annoyance, "How many times did I tell Kikyo I didn't need a damn assistant." His jaw twitched at his own voice saying the park manager's name. "She's just going to end up eaten or worse."

Miroku rose one eyebrow and lowered its twin, "What could be worse than being eaten?"

Inuyasha's eyes looked past him, his face dark, not replying with words. The things he's seen this pack do to a live animal were beyond description.

Miroku rose off the rail and turned his back to him with a two-finger salute, "Well just don't forget the girl. She's excited."

"And oi, I'm not a zookeeper!" Inuyasha snapped, remembering his off-handed insult.

"Whatever you say," Miroku entered the steel elevator to descend and return to the ground level and pulled a smirk, "But you're definitely the one holding that bucket of dead rats and those dogs are looking pretty hungry."

Inuyasha growled, "Why you-"

The elevator doors swallowed up Miroku's face and he was left standing on the roof of the pen with a fist aimed in his direction alone.

The snarls and yips from underneath his feet distracted him and he was back to looking at the white fur-coated Kaze. "Okay girl, eyes on me." He held up an open palm, "Eyes on me!"

She gave a characteristic scowl but honed in her vision to his palm and then he began to move, and she followed.

"Good!" Inuyasha almost wanted to smile, "Very good," He saw from his peripheral that her siblings were mimicking her movements, "Keep it up!" He encouraged, translating his eagerness through his voice instead.

The larger than life dogs all started walking in his intended direction, their eyes never leaving his hand. A smaller sibling with a slight limp in her pivot, unintentionally moved ahead of Kaze and the larger animal snapped at her, putting her back in the right place.

"Kaze!" Inuyasha admonished in a rough voice returning her to his hand, "Okay…okay good." He continued once he had all their attentions again.

He curled his open hand into a fist and all their necks inched up higher, all of them cocking their mouths slightly open in a pant, their tongues lolling out. "Steady!"

One of the siblings marched a paw in place, impatient.

"Ka, I see you." Inuyasha squinted. She stopped. He brought the hand down in one swift movement while saying, "Go!"

The pack ran forward, released from their dictator. He allowed a small smile of pride to split his lips.

"Wow," A female voice gasped.

The half-demon swiveled, his ears perked, grin dropping instantly.

"That was amazing." She wasn't looking at him, she just kept her eyes on the smaller animal, the hobbling one. "Why is that one limping?"

Inuyasha took in her appearance, and judging by her oversized boots, her matching brown vest and the green undershirt with the brand of the park on her right shoulder, he determined this was the assistant Miroku had reminded him about earlier. He gave one long slow blink in agitation. What happened to waiting for him below?

"That's Mizu." He told her in a neutral voice, picking up the bucket of warm dead rodents at his side and heaving it up onto the rail. The dogs instantly ran back to the center of the pen, awaiting.

"Here you go, Mizu," He pitched a small portion of a rat to her, reaching for another slightly larger piece, "Ka, I'm giving you the same portion as last time but get impatient with me again and you'll only be seeing tail next time," He threw half a rat to the panting animal and the second her jaws tied around it she viciously shook her head from side to side growling.

"It's dead already, you idiot." Inuyasha mumbled.

"Chi," He called out flicking his wrist to feed the third one, and she caught it gracefully while still in hind leg position.

He gripped a fat one the last time his hand came out of the rat bucket and he locked eyes with the remaining animal. They both stayed like that for a few passing seconds, breathing and staring. "Kaze," he started, toying with the rat in his hand, "This one's for you." He pointed the nose of the dead animal in his hand towards her snout and then under-handing it in a weak throw. She swallowed it whole the second it reached her tongue.

He wiped his dirty fingers on his gray pants and set the bucket down again, the sound of the metal clanking against metal bringing the woman aside him out of her trance.

"So why is she limping?" She probed again, knotting her hands behind her back.

"She was attacked at a young age."

"By what?"

"Kaze."

"Why?"

Inuyasha flashed her wan smile, hoping the dead look in his eyes would strike fear in her somehow, someway, "Because that's what they do. They attack things. They eat things smaller than them. Devour without a moment's hesitation. They can and will rip you apart. They don't care who you are, or what you mean to them. The provider of their meals could be their dinner tomorrow, today, yesterday. Their assistant could be desert."

The young woman didn't so much as flinch, "That didn't exactly answer my question, sir."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WHY AM I DOING THIS TO MYSELF.


	3. Welcome to Feudal World

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Enter the kids

**Welcome to Feudal World**

Kohaku looked earnestly with a large set of brown eyes above a dust of freckles, towards the cruise ship that was to take him and his estranged cousin to the island full of real live-breathing demons. His tongue flicked out of his mouth to lick his dried lips. He lifted a hand to rearrange the hat on his head, turning the bill backwards and feeling his mess of a pony-tail push towards the bottom of his neck.

"Are you ready, Rin?" He patted her brown head awkwardly.

Rin chewed on her lip and shook her head slowly, curling a finger around the cotton material of the orange patterned skirt on her hips.

The older boy beamed a reassuring smile down at her, "Come on, Rin. It'll be fun. I bet they'll even have nice demons there for you to ride and stuff."

She looked horrified, inching back and hiding behind him while burying her face into his back. The grin on his face morphed into confused slant of his lips, not totally sure of himself. He had just met her that morning when he had been dropped off at the same airport that she was at. She had been dangling her feet that couldn't yet touch the ground from a seat in the terminal, staring at the floor with a bored expression and when he had called her name out in greeting she had merely looked up and blinked small honeycombed eyes back at him. On the flight to the main island she had stayed curled up in her seat and ignored the flight attendant when she was asked if she wanted a drink.

Rin was weird.

He patted her head again, hoping it was granting the desired effect. He wanted her to relax and let go of him so that he would stop feeling that an uncomfortable feeling at the pit of his stomach that could only come from being touched by a stranger. Kohaku's sister had told him in a quiet tone that Rin's parents had been killed in an accident not too long ago and her guardians had sought this as an opportunity to take her mind off the tragedy, but he didn't think taking her to a theme park full of resurrected demon creatures was going to help any. And on top of that, to be sending her to the park with him of all people, who hardly knew her. In fact, hardly might even be an understatement. What was her last name again?

"Do all of them…eat meat?" She whispered.

Kohaku looked up in thought, "Uh no, there's probably going to be some cute…giraffe demons or something. They only eat green stuff."

It felt like she had breathed a sigh of relief but she was still holding on to him tight enough to turn her knuckles pale so he decided to try and unwrap her fingers from his shirt, one digit at a time. The second one finger had been pulled from the material and he started on another one, it came back down to grasp onto his shirt again.

He sighed and decided to just let her be. But the line they were standing in had finally started moving so he placed one foot in front of the other, hoping she would follow suit. At first she dragged behind him but the second someone behind her bumped into her she squeaked and propelled forward with the rest of the group.

Kohaku felt a small smile forming on his lips and this time when he patted her head, it was a genuine attempt at easing her troubles.

A woman's voice over the speaker system boomed out into the open, "Please proceed with caution, and we thank you once again for joining us on our Feudal World Adventure!"

When they finally passed the turnstile onto the giant ship Kohaku rushed ahead to the nose but Rin lagged behind again and he finally decided to just haul her up onto his shoulder despite her squealing protests.

"You're going to enjoy this!" He promised and she finally relaxed into his hold, bumping along as he took the steps leading onto the upper-deck two at a time.

They weren't one of the first on the deck and the taller boy had to push his way through some larger, less interested bodies. ("Um, sorry, excuse me…wah! My bad!") Rin took amusement in seeing the world from an upside down perspective and felt the bubble of a giggle rise in her chest but pushed it down before it could reach her voice. When Kohaku finally got to the railing that bordered the top deck, the view let him speechless.

The sun was just above them, creating sparkles that played at the top of the seawater, and casting a glow over the ocean that he would never forget. But the most awe-inspiring vision was how it seemed to spotlight just over the island, illuminating it in its all its glory. He felt his jaw drop and slowly put Rin back down on her two feet, making sure she was facing the land in front of them, accented in the middle by a quiet volcano.

She rubbed at her eyes and joined her cousin in incredulously staring ahead of her.

"Is that….um…" She mumbled, pulling herself closer to the rail, feeling the wind rip against her, the sound and smell of the waves breaking against the ferry, spraying water at her bare toes in their sandals.

"Yeah, that's it," Kohaku nodded while holding his hat to his head with one hand, still entranced. "Feudal World."

He had dreamed of coming here since the park had first been opened ten years ago, but as a five year old, there was little he could do to save money to foot the expensive ticket admission. His parents had passed away at around the same time the park had released an opening date and with only his sister taking care of him, she could hardly make ends meet raising a kid. So he had long ago accepted that travelling to the demon attraction theme park was something he was going to have to wait for when he got older and was able to afford it himself.

But that was before his sister got the manager position.

Now he was on his way to the ancient land of mythical creatures that he had only seen through the pages of a coloring book. The demons that had once lived long ago during the warring era, were alive and well once again.

**\---**

As the two disembarked the ferry Rin had resorted to just holding his sweaty palm. A pod of pretty girls his age walked past him and Kohaku felt the sweat collect on his temple. All three of them made eye contact with him, jumping from looking to him to looking down at Rin and giggling like a bundle of canaries before swaying away. He gulped, never taking his eyes off them.

"Why are you staring at them?" Rin said in a judgmental tone just before the girls could leave hearing distance and they burst into laughter darting away, causing Kohaku to look away humiliated.

"Come on," He tugged, ignoring her question.

They carried on, Kohaku peeling his eyes open wide to catch sight of his long-legged sister.

"Where is she?" Kohaku murmured, with a cupped hand above his brow to block out the sun.

Rin caught sight of something and patted Kohaku's arm. When the patting didn't work she pursed her tiny lips and yanked at his sleeve hard.

"Hey, hey-" He looked down at her annoyed, "What's the big-"

"Look!" She pointed.

There standing a few feet across of them, being flanked by the many busy bodies entering the park was a tall lanky man, one foot reaching behind his leg to reach an itch on his Achilles tendon. His brown hair cut short with a fringe of bangs frayed at his forehead, a pair of tan eyes searching feverishly above a perked nose.

He was holding a sign that read, _"Kohaku & Rin"_

"Well I guess my sister won't be coming for us," He said peevishly while walking towards the fidgeting man.

Kohaku held a hand up when he got close enough and the man holding the sign instantly recognized them, "Kohaku?! Rin?!"

The teenage boy nodded awkwardly and nudged Rin forward in reception. "That's us."

He beamed back at the pair, "My name's Sota. I'm responsible for taking you guys back to where you'll be staying for the week." He knelt down at eye-level with Rin, "Aren't you excited?"

Kohaku grimaced, hoping Rin wouldn't embarrass him any further by making things cumbersome and saying something rude-

"Not at all." She said quietly. Kohaku face-palmed in apprehension.

Sota gave a worried expression and glanced back at Kohaku, "Uh…"

"Where's my sister?" Kohaku asked, hoping to steer conversation.

Sota straightened back up and tucked his sign back under his arm, "She was going to come meet you guys here but she got held up."

"When can I see her?" It'd been three months since the last time he had the chance.

"You can both see her sometime later today," Sota cleared his throat, "Once she…informs me."

The excitement of being at Feudal World squandered any other emotions left to sit in his gut so he simply shrugged and plowed on ahead, his duckling following behind him. Sota reached into the pocket of his jeans and came out with two vibrantly colored wrist bands, one aqua colored and the other a bright shade of orange. "Wait, these are for you!"

Kohaku looked at them curiously, already finding Sota's overly excitable attitude irritating, "What are they?"

"They're your VIP wristbands." Sota smirked, "You didn't think having a sister in change of the security division for the park meant you'd just get free entrance did you? These babies will get you anywhere you want, skip the lines, and as many times as you want!"

Kohaku felt about ready to prance in place while Rin just scrunched up her nose. So how to say goodbye without making things weird and then bee-lining it to the wolf-demon paddock?

"But the catch is you have to stick with me."

The teenage boy repressed a groan.

**\---**

"So it's Mizu, Ka, Chi, and Kaze?" His assistant babbled while he pushed the button for the ground floor, wishing the doors would just close on her nose and he could be left in peace. He stayed silent despite her inquisitive questions. She didn't take her eyes off him the whole three seconds down to the designated floor.

"Just grunt once for no, twice for yes," She said while mimicking the movements, the bob of her ponytail following as they stepped into the compound.

He grunted twice.

"Looks like you've already got training dog demons down, Ms. Kagome." Miroku was bent over a network of harnesses with what looked like lens attached to their bodies.

The glare Inuyasha threw at him could have killed a small animal.

Kagome complimented the look with a warm smile, "Thank you, Miroku, but I think I still got ways to go."

The dark-violet eyed man peered back at her, "Well I'm sure with such a great teacher, you'll be making Kaze do back-flips in no time."

Inuyasha scoffed, "She's not going to be training anything."

"Excuse me?" Kagome's hands came to her hips. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"I think I was pretty damn clear on what I meant." He didn't bother to match her stare, rather taking to washing off the bucket in his hands with a nearby garden hose, squatting down. The muscle of his thighs stressed on his tight pants and he made mental note to stop drying his clothes with high heat.

Kagome rounded him glowering down, "I was contracted by _Kikyo_ to-"

The name once again caused an unwanted emotion to rip across his chest and he squeezed the garden hose too tightly triggering the water to spurt out uncontrollably, splashing the both of them; mud soaring across their faces.

"Oh boy," Miroku whispered.

Kagome wiped the back of her hand across her face to rid some of the wet dirt, never letting the scowl on her face to waver. "To _assist_ you in-" She continued.

" _Assist_ me by just staying out of the way," Inuyasha growled under his breath, throwing the hose away and not bothering to wipe anything off his face, adding to the already growing smell on his body. "And keeping _away_ from my animals." He added haughtily.

"Oh your animals." She countered spitefully. "I'm pretty sure they belong to my cousin."

Inuyasha gave her his full attention then, locking eyes with her, a wild expression on his face. "Your cousin might own this park. Your cousin might own this paddock. Your cousin might own your panties. But she doesn't own my girls."

Kagome gasped and felt a voice tug at the back of her mind that she was crossing lines she shouldn't be crossing, especially on her first day. So she released a pent up breath through her flared nostrils and marched away from him.

The furious half-demon couldn't help the question that fell from his mouth, "Where are you going?"

Kagome grunted in response.

**\---**

The clipping of Kikyo's heels hit the marble floor as she lead the group of rabid pack animals behind her to the screen displaying the DNA sample she had mentioned to them earlier.

The investors whispered among themselves, scribbling things down on their notepads and ipads.

"Ladies and gentlemen," She began in a controlled tone of voice, "As you know our park's revenue has soared beyond expectation. We're in route to top theme park record, our physical year ending with profits towards the 4 billion mark."

The group nodded, unimpressed _hmms_ echoing through the lab.

"But as our growing popularity expands, the interest of young mind is fading. People just aren't captivated by Feudal Era demons anymore. They want more," She unlocked her right knee, a hip jutting out. "More body, more teeth, more-" She paused for effect, " _Fear_."

The crowd stayed silent.

"So that's why we give you, Naraku." She splayed her thin hand against the transparent screen behind her and the genome sequence for the aforementioned demon came to life.

"His base genome is demon spider, but we didn't think that would be cool enough so we added a lizard demon into his make-up to give him the slender body, but still all the senses of anthropoid. He can see in the dark, sense thermal-heat radiation, and pick things up with his hands and tail."

The murmur of the investors rose with each passing second and Kikyo let a pleasant red smile light up her features.

"How big will he get?"

Kikyo turned off the screen behind her with a single tap of her index finger against the glass and faced the questioner, "He will be sixty feet long."

"Bigger than Sesshomaru?"

At the mention of the dog demon, Kikyo's face darkened but only momentarily. Would her creations always be subjected to that comparison?

"Bigger than Sesshomaru," She said smugly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I know, I know, how could I possibly resort Sesshomaru to a giant dog demon in a cage, while Inuyasha is spouting about with his a potty mouth in his half-demon state. I'll get to it. All in good time. Any grammar mistakes, I'll get back to it, or maybe you can let a chick know? J Have a good one.


	4. Busy Females

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Three of the most important things in writing: plot-setup, plot-setup, plot-setup. More notes at the end of the chapter.

**3**

**Busy Females**

Kikyo looked out the glass window, her sharp eyes narrowing into thin slits, focusing on the smallest of details to catch a glimpse of the creature.  _There_ \- at her 2 oclock in the palm trees, a rustle of movement. Her lips tightened, he was getting very good at holding still for long stretches of time and she hadn't decided yet if that was a good thing.

"Can you see him?" The good doctor to her left asked, walking closer towards her, perhaps get a better look at whatever it was she was staring at so intently.

She offered him a polite smile, "No, he is hard to catch sometimes, and he is very quiet."

"That won't be any good for visitors if they can't see him…" Hojo brought up his giant phone- _tablet_  to make a few notes with his stylus and Kikyo could almost hear her gut churn.

"We have ways to make him come out, which we will exercise when the crowds arrive, I can assure you."

The tall man moved yet even closer.

Kikyo was a magnetic for attention. Scientists from all over the globe scoured to attend her seminars, falling over themselves to get to the front row and itch for a chance to be called upon for questioning. They'd look at her with eyes of admiration, respect, awe, fear,  _disgust_. They'd be more in love with her brain than her looks, and she was able to walk past a hallway of men and not be noticed for the fact she was a woman, but rather for the fact she was a renowned scientist that kept the engineering of demons not only intact, but further growing. Always expanding. And now she was the head of the genetic hybrid division and CEO of the theme park. However, she was never subject to the type of admiration that one might hold for a significant other, or crush. She was never the topic of any dreams, so she was not privy to unwarranted attention of the… _romantic_  type and so was never next to a man within a breath of her. Her train of thought stopped suddenly, as if the tracks disappeared on the shelf of a steep hill… _well there was that one time_. A flash of white ears and golden eyes swam past her vision but she blinked it away.

Hojo's breathing was noisy and heavy, wheezing through his nostrils and Kikyo was reminded once again of his proximity. She was accustomed to her personal space, and not men flirting so closely with that line.

Suppose one would say, she was a woman who was not used to being an  _average woman._

"Do you have a way to keep track of him?"

Kikyo felt a piece hair sway against her cheek as she moved an inch father away from Hojo. "We have thermal imaging, it detects exactly where he is at all times."

"That's not exactly what I meant…"

She looked offended by the idea that she might've misunderstood something, "What did you mean?"

"If Naraku were to escape."

Kikyo scoffed lightly, bordering on a chuckle, "He would not  _escape._ "

Hojo shot her an incredulous look, "You think a creature 25 feet high, almost 60 feet across, wouldn't try to escape?"

"Dr. Hojo, there is a definite difference between  _trying_ to escape and  _succeeding_  in such a fruitless endeavor. These walls are over 140 feet high. More than quadruple his size. If he wanted to try escaping, he'd have to somehow evolve wings and have those wings grow to the span of over 20 feet to even lift him  _10_  feet off the ground, do you want to know how big they'd have to be to get him over 140?"

Hojo looked like he had been thrown back into a physics class during a pop quiz. "Uh…"

Kikyo looked at him impishly and nodded her head once to the side while shrugging a shoulder, "Like I said, he can try, but trying is as far as he will get, Dr."

Hojo broke out of his anxiety and walked closer to the glass, noticing something in particular, "Is this…are these cracks?"

The scientist licked her lips in thought _, hoped he would not notice those_.

"Yes….he tried…breaking through the glass."

"Isn't the glass 30 feet off the ground?"

"…yes."

"So, what? He  _jumped_?" Hojo stepped back from the window.

Kikyo repressed the urge to tap the point of her heel in annoyance, "Yes, he jumped and tried breaking the glass," She admitted again, "But the glass held and he has not attempted it again. Somebody will be coming out next week to repair it."

"So he's smart? Intuitive?"

"For a…animal." She said uneasily, not willing to admit any single animal is really 'intuitive'.

Hojo was shaking his head now, slowly, in an un-agreeable manner that made the woman slightly nervous. "Kikyo, if I may call you Kikyo-"

"You may," She interjected impulsively.

"I have someone on site that I'd like come take a look at the compound. He's been working with us for many years now. He's been training the dog demons at the south end of the island. His name is Inuyas-"

"I know of him." Kikyo cut him off so quickly that Hojo glanced at her in alarm.

She sighed answering his unspoken question, "As long as I've worked at Feudal World, he has lived her even longer."

Hojo nodded his head in understanding, "Well, that might makes things way less awkward then, like I said, I want him to take a look at the perimeter. Test the site for any weaknesses, give us the okay to open the exhibit before the crowd gets here next week. And then we can safely endorse it and give you the sponsorship you ask." There it was. The bait. Kikyo stayed expressionless despite her inner chaos of emotions at the mention of the partnership deal she was trying to forge to finance the new attraction. And that  _guy._

"We already have someone hired for that type of job, her name is Sango. She is more than qualified to-"

"She was busy, I already asked." Hojo turned to her, "So Inuyasha can be here sometime today?"

Kikyo heaved a large sigh, the cold exterior of her lab coat collar brushing against her neck with the exhale. "Of course." She murmured.

_Less awkward, my gluteus-maximum._

* * *

Kagome Higurashi looked out the glass window on the bottom floor that framed the wall, probably some 20 feet across. Her eyes finding the limping canine and following it as it shuffled over to the watering hole, lapping up large gulps of water in earnest. She laid a flat palm against the window and felt a flower of sympathy blossom in her chest. The dog demon was smaller than others, and her ears were floppy and long and dare she say,  _cute_. Mizu was peacefully minding her own doggy business before Kaze charged in, _probably not even thirsty_ , and snapped her fangs at the smaller animal, her gums savagely bared, and her curled tail flagging up in a dominating position. Mizu shrunk away and quickly crossed the dirt field to the other side of the paddock, somewhere Kagome couldn't keep her eyes on. She sighed, taking her hand off the window. That Kaze was already looking to be quite the brat. The dog sniffed at the water before trotting away victoriously, her tail still high in the air, ears pointed at their ends.

The ordeal in front of Kagome was a stark reminder of the dramatic spiel above ground. Her nose wrinkled in distaste.

She had been briefed on the half-demon prior to arriving to the island, and still had the file on him sitting at her desk in the bunker. She recited the facts, even now as she looked past the window.

Inuyasha, or as he was originally named  _558_ , first of his kind. Created in a lab over twenty-six years ago, back when the idea to bring the demons back to life, had all to do with weaponizing them and nothing to do with a family friendly theme park. The genetic company had initially preferred to morph their culture samples into full grown humanoid soldiers. Soldiers with all the demon qualities that their fossils suggested they were alleged to possess centuries ago. And so the idea of Inuyasha picked up momentum, but something had gone terribly wrong in his incubation and they had to add more human into his sequence to keep him stable. He was designed poorly, half demon, half human, and the lab held little to no use for an infant that would grow slowly. That's where the file cuts off before going into detail about his canine abilities;  _paragraph 2: acute sense of hearing, smell, sharp claws; paragraph 5: could lift things six-times his size._

_Oh,_  Kagome recalled leaning her back against the concrete, and adorable dog ears that she wanted very badly to rub. But that didn't need to be documented.

She heard the crescendo of echoing footsteps begin their descent into the dark corner she had wandered into and blinked away her train of thought.

"What are you doing down here?" A brisk voice questioned harshly, the sound of him unbuckling the belt at his waist and throwing it into a nearby shadowy corner causing Kagome panic.

Kagome's eyes widened, "What-what are you doing?"

"I'm undressing."

She sputtered, "You're what? Here? Are you kidd-"

"This is my room." He stated, cutting her off and flipping on a switch that looked like it hadn't be turned on in ages, probably due to the fact he didn't really need it _-paragraph 4: night-vision._  The bulb made a squelching noise at the apex of the ceiling and illuminated the dark room she had found herself in. Once her vision had adapted to the sudden onslaught of light, she caught sight of a messy cot, paired with a nightstand made of stacked buckets and what looked to be a small dining table with a leg missing, covered in books.  _Canis lupus familiaris_ _: A disambiguation,_   _Hellhounds_ ,  _Yokai Weekly_ , among them that she could see.

"Oh my goodness, I am so sorry," She found herself waving her hands in front of her apologetically; her politeness rising before her reason. How in the world could she have known this was his room?

Inuyasha started to unbutton the vest on his chest and she was frozen to the spot, watching the ripple of muscles move underneath his red undershirt. He certainly was pretty chiseled, and those shoulders were so  _broad_ -

"Can I help you?" Inuyasha narrowed his eyes at her and she nearly keeled over. "I'd like to get changed  _alone_. And you should work on getting bathed, you smell disgusting."

She made shocked gurgling noises in the back of her throat before lashing out, " _I_  smell disgusting? Are you  _kidding_  me? Have you taken a whiff of this room, it's absolutely rancid. Are you sure you're not part  _pig_ instead of being part dog?"

"Wow, _so_  clever," He said sardonically, "Like I've never heard that one before."

"You say that like it's a good thing!"

_What was with this guy_ , Kagome felt her blunt nails dig half-moons into the inside of her hands. He made her go from apologetic to mad in less time than it takes for a hair-tie to go missing.

A muted bark stole their attention and they turned to find one of the animals, Ka, opening and closing her snout viciously against the glass, her saliva streaking against the window.

"Damnit Ka," Inuyasha whispered.

"Can they see us?" Kagome was aware that the glass was coated with a transparent layer of aluminum to permit anything from seeing into their quarters, but judging by the way Ka was boring craters into her face through the window, she was beginning to doubt the one-way mirror.

"No," He answered quietly, "But they can probably hear your shrilling voice."

Kagome was one French-fry away from turning Inuyasha into a Happy meal, but her curiosity out wrestled the desire to strangle him. Ka was pawing relentlessly now at the glass, trying to dig her way through it, "Why is she doing that?"

The half-demon sighed, "Hungry. Bored. Stupid." Kagome could tell there was no fire behind his insults. His eyes which had a second ago been cold and cunning were now warm, his eyebrows softening. He brought his fingers to his lips and blew a high-pitched whistle, Kagome winced.

Ka immediately stopped, glaring ferociously at the glass and standing still for a moment, her leg muscles twitching while her ears coned at the top of her head.

"She's impatient," Inuyasha mentioned out loud, and then he whistled again, the dog demon hybrid ran off, spraying dirt against the glass in its wake.

"You really seem to have them eating out of your hand."

The frowning face was back, "They'll sooner  _eat_ my hand." He pointed a finger at her and then waved it to the staircase, "Now get out of here, before I file sexual harassment charges."

The way Kagome's jaw clenched was borderline painful as she returned her hands to the knotted back position, stomping out of the room huffing angrily. But not before catching a flashing glimpse of his tanned naked shoulder as he ripped off his soiled shirt.

She was caught blushing whilst Miroku was trying to avoid stepping in mud coming down the steps, "Ms. Kagome!" He was quick to alter his tone judging by the circumstance of her red cheeks, "Where are you off in a hurry to?"

"Bathroom!" She squeaked while averting her eyes in surprise. He looked about ready to be inquisitive, his thumb and index finger rising to his chin, but she rampaged the rest of the stairs up, the clanking of her boots slamming again the metal cutting off anything he would have wanted to ask.

"…okaaay then." The man danced his fingers against the rail before finally reaching the bottom step, an almost-naked half-demon meeting his eyes. Inuyasha could be heard making a scandalized yowl before Miroku said, "Oh,  _Inuyasha-"_

Kagome slammed the door behind her…slightly envious.

* * *

"What the hell, Miroku?" Inuyasha held onto his tight pants, trying to force them back up while grunting.

"Getting comfortable with the new assistant, hmm? Do we need to have the  _talk_?"

"Yeah, about  _personal space_ , and knocking before entering, and  _damnit_ , can you  _turn around_!" He accidentally slapped his own face trying to pull the pants up when his claws met little resistance and slipped past the smooth material.

"I can," Miroku took a seat in the empty chair by the sad looking dining table, mildly listening to his co-worker go down the list of his colorful vocabulary while rubbing his injured nose. Miroku stopped him at one word in particular, "Oh that reminds me, Kikyo wants you."

That got Inuyasha to settle down and face him, propriety be damned; his interest was piqued. "What?"

"She needs you to take a look at a new exhibit."

"A new exhibit?" Inuyasha felt the urge to spit in disgust but rolled his eyes instead, "What have they cooked up this time?"

"I don't know," Miroku turned serious then, scanning the window to look at the large dogs as they ran across the display in unison. "But whatever it is, it's big and dangerous and she wants you to measure the paddock for any weaknesses."

Inuyasha itched the bottom of his nose with the tip of his claw in thought, "Ain't that Sango's type of thing? Why doesn't she ask her?"

At the mention of the security manager Miroku's whole face dropped into an uncharacteristic pout, "She's busy."

The other man felt a twinge of awkwardness for bringing up the subject of Sango and scratched the back of his head, "She still hasn't talked to you, huh?"

"Not since the proposal…" Miroku sighed, leaning back on the chair and slumping his shoulders.

"Well maybe that has something to do with the way you asked." Inuyasha returned to the matter of removing his pants. When he finally pushed them down the thickest part of his thighs to the skinny part of his knees he inwardly rejoiced but then found resistance once again at his calves.  _Fucking hell._

"What do you mean? Did I overdo it with the roses?" Miroku looked at him anxiously.

"No you bozo, ' _Will you bear my child,_ ' is not how you ask a damn girl to marry you."

* * *

The angry assistant had finally made it to the surface and was about to make off on an ATV to voice an official statement of resignation to her CEO cousin but a ball of fluff stopped her in her tracks. The momentum of her twist caused her pony-tail to slap the side of her face and the sweat that had accumulated there from the humidity made it stick against her cheek. She puttered some hair out of her mouth before looking forward again.

It was Chi. She was the only other dog that had the floppy ears, but hers were slightly longer than Mizu's and the violent stripes on furry cheeks were lighter colored, more of a fading violet than the harsh purple on her sisters. Chi was tall and slender and although all the dogs had the same shape, they all had varying builds. Kaze was obviously the largest, reaching up to Inuyasha's shoulders, probably Kagome's head. Ka was almost just as large but her shoulders were robust and her ears although were also perked up like Kaze's, were thinner and the right one looked tattered at its ends. Chi had the longest legs, and a sage old-woman's-look to her pale yellow eyes that pulled Kagome in closer. The surface level didn't have glass walls, it just had steel bars and if Kagome had so wished she could ease her fingertips just through the metal and  _reach out to pet_ -

**"Stop!"**

Immediately Kagome pulled back and canine jaws snapped rapidly in her wake, saliva spilling from the dog's mouth and spraying Kagome's neck as she fell backwards on her bottom.

"What did you think you were doing?" Inuyasha's boots uprooted gravel as he ran over to the fallen girl and put one arm protectively on her back. "Chi!" He barked up at her. "Enough!"

The dog snarled back at him and slowly retreated, her floppy ears pulled back as far as they could go.

Kagome looked disappointed, "She was going to let me pet her."

" **Pet**  her?!" He snapped, "You think Chi wants the  _pats?_!"

Kagome looked straight into his eyes, "She got spooked by you telling me to stop!"

Inuyasha removed his support from her back and she fell back instantly, yelping as she went down. "She didn't get spooked by me, she was  _hypnotizing_  you. She wanted you to get closer. She wanted to eat you." He tried keeping a cap on his emotions, especially after the debate from earlier, but she wearing him thin. "It's called predatory distraction." He said referencing his notes.

"That's not true, Predatory distraction doesn't involve wagging of the tail, which she was doing. I've been studying these animals for years, I can differentiate between Chi allowing me the opportunity to touch her, and Chi wanting me as an entrée."

"And I've been  _living_  with them for longer!" He roared, "Trust me, you're not helping yourself by working here." His voice portrayed irritation and rage but his eyes were concerned and confused. As if he wasn't trusting his own judgement of what he just witnessed. "Why do you think we even had an opening in the first place?"

Kagome froze, her shoulders shooting up to her neck. No she hadn't thought about that at all.

"One of my assistants, made a mistake and now he's gone. Dead. Ripped open. Mauled."

"What happened…?" Kagome asked slowly and she eased her way back up to her feet and dusted her shorts.

Inuyasha growled, "He snuck into their paddock while they were sleeping to fucking snapchat."

Kagome closed her eyes in grief, "You never just walk into a demon-dog's territory without invitation…especially when they're sleeping, their most vulnerable position." She sucked her teeth, "Of course they attacked him. How terrible though. Poor guy."

Inuyasha looked at her dumbfounded as the scent of salt assaulted his senses.  _Was she about to cry?_  Everyone who had been told the story had either rolled their eyes at his ex-assistant's reckless behavior or made a snide comment about putting his girls down because they were animals that couldn't be trusted. And then he almost mauled  _them_.

"Listen…" He finally said, making his way over to a parked blue jeep, choosing to ignore the feelings burrowing around in his stomach. "Just stay away from the pack for now, don't get close to the cage,  _ever_. I do not care if you think Chi is  _singing_  to you, and don't you dare try to stick your fingers through those bars again."

She looked about ready to barrage him with questions so he cut her off, "I have to go do some work. My girls eat around noon, at that time I want you to watch Miroku when he feeds them. Learn something. I'll be back." He hopped into the front seat through the opening at the top and jammed the key into the ignition.

"Wait," Kagome looked to the side in thought and then called back out to him, "Does that mean I can stay?"

Inuyasha put his boot on the brake as he shifted the gear into reverse, "Yeah yeah, just don't get comfortable. Nothing's permanent."

As he turned the wheel to drive off with his back to the girl, she must have thought he was incapable of seeing her bouncing up and down, wiggling a little dance, while her hands were curled into fists, and a grin the size of the sun radiated from her face. But fortunately, rear-view mirrors existed, so he couldn't help the goofy lop-sided smile that worked its way onto his stoic face.

* * *

"Kohaku, I'm sorry, but Sango's just busy." Sota Higurashi fanned his face with the park's vibrantly blue covered brochure.

"She's always busy," The younger boy grumbled turning his hat back around to hide his face from the sun and picking up his pace to the wolf-demon paddock, Rin being dragged behind him helplessly.

Sota blew out his cheeks in an exhale, not sure whether he should apologize or…

" _Join Trainer Koga and his pack! Wolf Demon Feeding in 5 minutes_ ," The same woman's voice that had welcomed them into the park an hour ago echoed and bounced off the concrete walls as the trio walked past.

"Yes!" Kohaku fist-pumped into the air, sister forgotten. "Come on, Rin." He pulled harder this time, and she dug her heels into the ground.

He looked down at her distractedly, "What are you doing?"

She pushed out her lower lip, the most expression he had seen from her all day and pointed at a group of snotty nosed toddlers and other kids closer to her age as they stumbled over each other to get in line for the…. _demon baby petting zoo?!_

"No," He said calmly before letting go of her hand.

"But-"

"Rin what are you, 12?"

"I'm eight." She gave him a leveled look that spoke of her being generations older than eight.

"Well, the age limit for that attraction, is probably five."

"Uh," Sota broke in, folding out the brochure, "It's actually for all ages, you just have to be short enough to ride on them and Rin looks to be-"

Kohaku shot him a silencing look.

"Much too tall," Sota amended sweetly. Rin's pouting face turned into acute betrayal when she met Sota's reassuring smile.

"Or…not." These kids were going to give him an ulcer. So much for just following them around and making sure they didn't get lost. This was clearly turning into a baby-sitting job, and he somehow ended up with Problem Child 1 who was quick to scowl at him at any given notice and Problem Child 2 who seemed way too young to have resting bitch face and yet there it was, sharp little eyebrows and all…He was going to ask Sango for a raise when she got back from her "business."

Kohaku's face lit up in an idea, "Rin why doesn't Sota take you? Hmm? And then we can meet up after the feeding? Sound good?"

Rin's hands came up to her chest and she picked at the skin on her fingers apprehensive about the idea.

"It'll be okay, Sota is a great guy, right dude?"

A flattered toothy grin appeared on the baby-sitter's face "Well of course-" But then Sota flailed his mouth in protest, "Wait a second-I'm supposed to be watching over  _both_  of you. Why don't we just go to the petting zoo first and then make the next feeding? The demon wolves have to eat more than just once a day, and it's still early." He looked hopeful then, "And maybe if we can through everything fast we can head back to the suite before the dinner buffet closes."

Rin peered up at Kohaku and realized she had probably caused him distress by mentioning the petting zoo. She felt guilty and looked down at her sandal-clad feet, shuffling them closer to each other in distress.

Kohaku didn't miss the sad look on her face and something ignited within him, a small spark of shame for causing this little girl to be sad on his account. He hurriedly took her small hand and led her towards the line of sticky-fingered children. "I think I saw a baby giraffe demon," He mentioned to her as she tried to keep up with him, "You think I'm too tall to ride it?" The wide-eyed look on her face, morphing into a smile made it impossible for Kohaku to regret his decision.

When they were finally in the line, a little girl in front of them stomped her pink boots and shrieked, "Mommy, I want to pet the baby  _fox_  demon, not the stupid baby  _mole_ demon!" The curly haired mother tried to console the child but she was too far gone and had erupted into dry tears and shrill wailing. Kohaku wasn't so sure about the decision being impossible to regret now…

But of two things he was absolutely positive:

_They were going to see the wolf-demons right after this, regardless of feeding or not._

_He had to lose the Sota guy._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: First of all, thank you so much for the kudos and occasional review! Okay so to clear up some questions, hopefully everyone reading has seen the Jurassic World movie (if not GO GO GO GO) so you should at least know somewhat of what things are going to look like, where I'm going with the plot, and how the characters are being casted. HOWEVER, I altered a few things, Claire Dearling was too much of a sophisticated cold business woman for Kagome to be written as, so I had to give that role to Kikyo, but she will not be playing the same part as in the movie (running around with Inuyasha in the jungle, being involved with the kids, ect, ect.) This will not be InuKik. This will be InuKag. Kagome and Sango are added characters; I wanted to insert them with their personalities in mind, but they will have big roles to play. Sango would be in charge of the defense, the same way she would have been head of the demon slayers clan, and Kagome is really into archaic things. I'm working on incorporating Shippo, but he is the hardest for me to find a place for that would do him justice. Someone asked for a chart to be able to follow the story along better, but I'm sorry! I haven't constructed that yet, once we get in deeper with some chapters, maybe I'll be able to do that. I'm sorry for any confusion It's an AU of Inuyasha so the basic things that happened in the original anime/manga storyline are going to bleed into the Jurassic World development. We're riding this rollercoaster together, hold on to ya butts. (Don't credit it me with some of these chapter names, some are directly from the JW soundtrack. Listen to it!) Again, I'm not very good at catching my grammar mistakes, my brain skims things when I read. So keep me updated! ;)
> 
> And ugh...fucking snapchat!


	5. The Family That Strays Together

_**4** _

**The Family That Strays Together**

* * *

The sound of thunder struck the perimeter of the captivity, the dirt vibrating with a rage, as large furry appendages pawed violently against the dirt. The largest of the squad stopped with the mechanical grace of a freight train on disc brakes; no sliding, just a complete and total immobilization. The rest of the pack skimmed the dirt, Ka in particular slipping with such a force that her whole body collided with the steel bars and rattled them, the material firm under her weight. Miroku sat down near the cage with a large container in front of him, knowing with complete certainty that the metal poles in front of him were all that separated him from a terrible demise. Four pair of eyes fixated on his hands and where they were gravitating towards as they secured around the latch of the metal vessel. The frightened squealing that emitted from the box made Kagome wince, a twinge of despair flashed across her face.

"Isn't this making it too easy for them?" She knelt down to Miroku's level, her feet feeling the burn of brand new boots, and tortured herself further by looking into the box through the breathing holes to peer at the screaming bait. From this angle she got more up-close with the man's facial features and she couldn't help but notice the pointed chin, lead in by an elegant jaw, high cheek-bones and a large forehead covered with a mess of frayed raven hair. Miroku was handsome.

He smiled back at her, trying to ease her obvious disdain, and she reeled back, "Don't you eat pork-chops, Ms. Kagome?"

Kagome groaned low in her throat and settled her hands on her bent knees, "Not live ones."

Miroku chuckled, "Well to answer your question, these lovely ladies know exactly what's coming," He turned to them in acknowledgement as Chi whined with her head down to the sound of the pig scrambling in its cage, "-and they  _know_  that I'm not going to make it easy for them. This is one of their daily exercises. They have to hunt and work  _together-_ " He emphasized the last word with a pointed look to Kaze, "-to get the prize and I'm not going to open the latch if they're just standing in front of it like this."

Kagome blinked back up at Kaze's piercing gaze, feeling her heart start beating like hummingbird wings, trapped between feline claws. This animal may have been put together in a lab but she didn't know that. Kaze had sold herself to the wilderness long ago.

"So how do you move them away from it?" She ventured.

Miroku whistled once, the pitch causing Kagome to once again cringe in contempt. Miroku and Inuyasha were skilled at imitating screeching banshees.

The females stood still at attention and after a brief second Kaze knowingly trotted away, with what Kagome felt was way too much sway capable of a dog to be imitating, full of sass. Her tail swished from the left to the right, like a floating river of fur, as her sisters followed suit and soon all four of them were at the other side of the enclosure, their hackles ready for pouncing. They were poised over a patch of dirt that looked explicitly marked off by white lines.

Miroku signaled to someone at the top of the cage with an open hand and soon there was an unrelenting buzzing that wrung throughout the perimeter, and this time when the ground shook, it wasn't due to the pounding paws and claws.

A sequence of large walls protruded from the dirt's surface and Kagome jolted up to get a better a look at what was happening. Her view went from direct amber-eyed staring, to grey concrete in her face. The four demon dogs were hidden behind a series of crisscrossing walls that reached up high enough to touch the top of the cage's metal bridges, making it impossible for the animals to hedge over. Miroku gave the man at the control panel a sweaty thumb up and shouted up at him, "How do they look?"

"Ready to kill!" The man yelled back down to them, his voice accented by loud yipping and snarling.

"It's a maze." Kagome whispered and felt her shock melting away into clear understanding.

"Go up to the top, Ms. Kagome," Miroku ushered her, moving his hand back to the latch where the pig was still screaming. She tried to stop it from shattering her heart. "It's better to watch the show from up there, you won't see anything from down here." Kagome noticed numerous workers crowd around the top in a flourish, the sound of their shoes beating against the metal resonating throughout the cage.

"What about you?" She asked although she was already moving towards the staircase.

He provided her a cheeky smile, "I'll join you shortly. I have to set the lunch loose."

She nodded in affirmation before scrunching her nose at the comment and turned around to run up the steps. Despite her inner desire to save all living things, the notion of witnessing dog-demons hunting and running through a maze in search for prey, caused all types of exhilaration and anticipation to bubble high in her chest.

When she reached the top, she gripped the iron railings and bent over it to get a healthy observation at the intricate design of the labyrinth. The obstacle allowed the girls three different routes that led into either the underbrush of tall pasture, the pond in the middle, or the pattern of palm-trees. The pig on the complete opposite end of the cage was going to be set loose but it wasn't certain where he would choose to take temporary shelter. This was a test to see how fluidly Kaze could control her pack, lead them down the right path and work in tandem to capture the flag. Or pig in this case.

With one last longing look into the breathing holes, Miroku closed his eyes in silent prayer as he wrapped his fingers around the L-shaped lever, pulling it towards his chest and releasing the doomed pig.

It leapt out of its entrapment and almost instantly the monsters were set loose, saliva flung far and jaws opened wide in a deafening roar.

As they soared through the muddy air, Kagome engraved into her mind the image of gravity  _fearing_  them as they dashed away into oblivion.

Kaze propelled forward in a ferocious surge of muscle and fur, wheeling her large head back to signal to the others that they were going into the right furthest route, barking once. Ka in all her excitement went to charge the middle instead of the right, since her nose deceived her instinct to follow Kaze.  _Lunch was middle_ , the data in her brain screamed, but with a direct nudge on her left shoulder by Chi, she was put on the right path again and they barked into the right narrow aisle with all the determination of a growling stomach.

"Chi is like the peacemaker," Kagome observed quietly, her eyes never leaving the pack.

Miroku nodded proudly, appearing beside her suddenly, "Indeed she is."

Kagome heard the glowing pride in his voice and quirked her eyebrows knowingly, "Did you train Chi?"

He grinned, "Inuyasha would tell you that all I did was occasionally dry them off after their bath, and feed them, but Chi and I have a connection. The girls all belong to him, he's a proud father of four."

Kagome waited a breath before prodding further, "But…"

"But Chi is my baby girl." Miroku said with a lightness to his voice that Kagome hadn't heard before, from the brief time at the paddock. "I named her."

"Did you name all of them?"

"Most of them." Miroku snorted, "If Inuyasha had named him, their names would be Blood, Scar, Killer, and Shredder." Miroku sighed, "He did choose Kaze's name after I had named the other three though."

Kaze banked to the left as they all made a sharp turn in unison and she howled at Mizu who was lagging behind, unable to keep up with the pace of the rest. But where Kagome was expecting the brat princess-dog to leave her behind with the rest of the pack's freight train speed, she noticed Kaze bringing her hustle down a notch, enough for the smallest sibling to catch up and the pandemonium of their beating paws against the earth were in perfect sync once more.

"But didn't you technically name one of them after blood?" Kagome asked distractedly. She noted the blood thirst look in the animal's eyes and shrugged, "I mean, I guess it's fitting."

Miroku tutted his head, also not lifting his eyes from the dogs, "You know the other meaning for  _chi_ , don't you?"

Kagome cut him an annoyed look, "Of course I do." It had been a long stretch of time since her or her brother had used Japanese at all and with so many varying definitions for words she shouldn't have taken it as personally as she did, but she couldn't help it. Miroku chuckled lightly, shying away from her look of petulance.

Finally the pack had reached the end of the network, and appeared at the expanse of tall grass, stopping short to sniff at the air with their large black noses. Kaze seemed to latch onto something on the wind and they all soon vanished into the shield of the meadow.

_Of course_ , Kagome felt a pinch of stupidity. The different elements: Kaze,  _wind_ , Ka,  _fire_ , Mizu,  _water_ , and Chi,  _earth_.

But…

"Who's supposed to be Sora-the fifth element, then?" Kagome said cheekily, leaning over the edge slightly, the metal part of her belt-buckle pressing against her abdomen as she did so, hoping to get a better look at the demons as they divided up. Kaze and Chi in the middle with Mizu and Ka separating to their sides; only their shoulders peeking out from the overgrowth as they slunk their way over to the pig. All the observing crowd could see was tall-tell marks of hunters as the grass gave way to their strides, and the fat animal hiding in a spot of dirt ahead of them.

Miroku removed his arms from his sides and reached forward to grip the railings as well, his eyes settling into a deep purple, "That'd probably be pretty boy, alpha."

"Inuyasha?" Kagome breathed and then gasped, catching her mistake.  _Shit_. "Or you?" She said, trying to be coy, hoping it didn't sound as awkward as she felt.

Miroku was already smirking, "Don't worry, Ms. Kagome." He placed a thin hand on her brown head, patting her, "I won't say anything." She made a desperate strangling noise just in time to see the pig get cornered, all its exits blocked. The girls gracefully executed their plan and then Kaze shot her snout at Ka, stopping her from taking the kill. She snapped her jaws at the robust dog, and turned to yip at Mizu in a strange high-pitched noise.

Kagome's mouth formed an 'o', her face caught up in confusion. "What's going on…" She twisted back to Miroku.

"Watch."

So she did and that's when Mizu without second hesitation lurched forward and killed the pig, it gave a sharp cry into the void and then it was silent. The newly appointed assistant closed her eyes as the blood splattered against the leaves like paint, but when she opened them again she saw that they were all digging into the dead creature ravenously. Savage, hungry noises emitted from the ground underneath them.

"She gave the kill to Mizu." Kagome realized out loud chewing her corner lip in thought. Miroku hummed satisfied that she was connecting the dots. "She gave the kill to Mizu because she wanted the pack to stay connected. To get her appraisal. To keep order." Her fingers reached up to her temple and then dug into the black strands, momentarily disheveling her pony-tail, "But that's not what these animals in the wild actually do, this is completely new behavior." Her voice picked up pace and was getting higher in tone by the syllable. "This is undocumented!" She turned to Miroku with her hands now knotted in front of her, a feverish look to her face.

"So what do you think?" Miroku dusted his hands from the grit on the metal he had been fisting, and rotated back to the staircase.

Kagome licked her lips, looking down at the holes in the steel grid underneath her boots, "What do I  _think_? This is…" She shook her head as she beamed, "This is amazing. It's like a ballet. They have to move in a very coordinated way and communicate and make actual decisions."

Miroku stretched his mouth, his teeth clamped together, "Don't let Inuyasha hear you call what his girls do, a  _ballet_."

She rolled her chestnut eyes, "True, he'll probably kick dirt in my face." Miroku laughed at the image and heard Kagome begin to descend the steps with him. "Speaking of, is he  _normally_  that grouchy?"

Miroku stopped to look up at the clouds covering the sun, his hands cupping over his brows to block out the faint rays, "Typically yes, but especially today."

"What  _about_  today?" Kagome stopped mid-step and warily stared at Miroku's back, not liking his ominous tone.

He dug a toothpick packet out of his pocket and stuck one in his mouth, pushing it back to his molars, grinning at her like he knew something she didn't.

"It's the new moon."

* * *

When the trio finally remembered they had " _VIP-access"_  wrist bands, they skipped all of two people in a line where they were waiting for over half-hour for. And those two people made sure to shoot them the stink eye, _all_ the way to the entrance of the petting zoo.

The ground was crawling with small pathetic creatures that made high-pitched moaning and squawking sounds and if Kohaku stepped in anything that even resembled demon droppings, he was going to fake an allergy and take the park down financially through lawsuits, and maybe kill somebody along the way. Preferably  _Sota_ , since he was chatting it up with a group of extremely attractive girls. Extremely attractive girls that may have also been extremely too old for Kohaku, but age was just a number to a teenager. The yellow tinged dirt beneath them was surrounded by fake wooden logs, fencing in the toddling demon babies that would very often shuffle into his legs, causing him to lose balance and even though Kohaku caught himself before he landed flat on his face, the jingle of light laughter still drifted into his ears at his expense. The women Sota was _philandering_  with all made eye contact with the awkward looking Kohaku and covered their mouths, continuing to giggle. Kohaku made a inhibited choking noise and Rin looked behind her and then up to stare at her cousin in bewilderment.

Sota chuckled, "Aren't they cute? I'm taking care of them for the day."

" _You are?"_

" _Wowww, that's so mature of you."_

" _You must like kids, huh?"_

Kohaku closed his eyes in an attempt to block out the shame and almost tripped over himself for the second time in the damned petting zoo when Rin tightly grasped his fingertips, without warning, and led him forward to a baby otter demon. It was the size of an adult poodle, and chattering to itself in broken otter speech, full of mewls and meeps and clicks. Its marble eyes were ridiculously small compared to its large head and it stood on two thick furry legs. His brown paddle of a tail kept him propped up-right behind him.

"What is he?" Rin asked while reaching curious fingers out to pet the fur on his flat head. The demon sniffed up at her palm and then wrapped it's small clawed digits around her short fingers, his ears twitching enquiringly. She giggled and Kohaku glanced back at the tail again.

"It's an otter demon." He answered and thought about petting the animal too but refrained. Instead, he lifted his wrist to take note of the time. "5 more minutes, yeah?"

Rin sighed and the otter demon scurried away on all fours, its tail swaying from side to side behind him. She was prepared to admit defeat and let her cousin know they could make their way back to the wolf-demon paddock but a reptile looking tail dragged a groove through the sand and caught her eye. It was attached to a large horse-looking being that walked on four giant clawed-feet and when it turned around she realized it had two heads. Both heads protruded from two necks that met at the end and they had a mess of a mane going down both backs. It's green slit eyes blinked with the lid pulling horizontally instead of vertically, and they held each other's gazes for what seemed like a life-time before it began to march slowly towards her. She held her breath as the large animal bent both its heads down to sniff at her hair.

Kohaku gripped her shoulders tightly, ready to move her out of harm's way. She turned inquisitive eyes to his worried ones, "What type of demon…?" It licked her cheek and she stilled in shock.

The capped teenager opened and closed his mouth, finally admitting that he had no idea. He wasn't one to be _unable_  to distinguish the name of species, so his jaw locked up in embarrassment. The creature opened one of its mouths for a minute and ground his teeth, finishing an earlier meal, and Kohaku impulsively took note of their familiar shape.

"Does he…eat meat?"

Kohaku shook his head, "No he's got flat teeth. Herbivore."

"Ah-Un!" A squat looking man ran over to the beast, using a long stick for balance, and pulled on its reins in frustration. "Stop bothering the children!" In his haste he had knocked his pointy hat from his otherwise bald head and readjusted it, he was also about Rin's height and Kohaku realized he must be a 'little person'.

"He's not!" Rin said quickly, finally finding a smile as she rubbed the creature's snout, feeling safer now that she knew she wasn't being considered lunch. It crooned pleasantly against her hand. "He's sweet…"

The small man's mouth stuck out like a beak and his large green eyes rolled in their sockets, "He's stupid." The creature blew a blast of smoke in his direction with the right head, and the man squawked his fear while being knocked over by its strong scaly tail. The kids couldn't help but laugh. The short man leaned up on his elbows from the ground, glaring daggers at them. He pointed his stick, "Insolence!"

Rin simply ignored him, being nuzzled by two heads at either side of her own, and Kohaku warily began petting one of the manes as well. Jaken grumbled, wishing the stick he had barbed at them could shoot out fire or something to get their full attention.

Finding his own footing on two small bill-like feet the man pulled on the reins again, "Au-Un, you are responsible for keeping the peace of the smaller ones, get get!" He lifted the lame stick and smacked his rear twice. Both Kohaku and Rin threw their attention to him with judgmental faces full of scorn while noting of the keeper's name tag: _Jaken_.

Au-Un, made a noise closest resembling a sigh and removed itself from Rin's soft hands. He lazily turned away and returned to its' position of watching out for the babies that were bound to run into danger.

Rin's face dropped and stared at Jaken, her sharp thin eyebrows drawing in a frown. "You should be nicer to him, Mr. Jaken." Her voice somehow still retaining a cheerful pitch, despite her inner-disappointment.

Jaken scoffed another squawking sound, and dusted the dirt from his shoulders, readjusting the stick on the ground, "You shouldn't talk your superiors like that!"

"Well maybe you shouldn't hit the demons in front of little kids," Kohaku took a step in front of Rin, his level of annoyance reaching a boiling point. It wasn't everyday a grown man would snap at a little girl, no matter that they were little themselves and the need for justice emerged in Kohaku's chest. That and he could still faintly hear Sota and the women being obnoxiously happy.

Jaken crossed his arms, the long piece of wood in his hands moving horizontal against his bent elbow. Granted, he was often told that his grouchy demeanor was unbecoming of him and that he should learn to be more enjoyable and friendly, especially when working in a children's baby demon petting zoo-but he shouldn't even  _be_  there in the first place. He belonged with the giants.  _He should be keeper of the Sesshomaru paddock, damnit._  Not following behind a dragon-like creature that disrespected him at every turn. Jaken was about grant the children in front of him, a lecture in valuing your elders but he was rudely cut off by a booming voice that caught all their ears.

" _Sesshomaru feeding in 15 minutes, warning to all parents, content may not be suitable for young children."_

And by the time Jaken turned his head back to the pair, there were only large footsteps next small drag marks against the yellow sand.

* * *

"Kohaku," Rin dug her fingers into his black shirt, "Why is there a goat chained to a post in the center of the cage next to a red flare?"

The  _cage_ , might've been an understatement.

Sesshomaru's enclosure should as well have been its own park next to Feudal World, with separate ticket admission and everything. The entrance to the viewing was marked by two large pillars with the emblem of a howling dog demon (the trademark image of the Feudal World logo), at its summit with the words  _"Lord Sesshomaru"_ engraved in stone, and there was wide paved road leading to the massive glass window to look into the paddock, which wrapped around only a small  _portion_  of the space the oversized dog-demon was kept in. Hundreds of people lined up around the glass, everybody's eyes frantically searching for any sign of the white-furred monster. Chattering whispers echoed across the observatory, the only light source in the large convention styled room emitting from the window itself. The fat goat in the front-center was dwarfed by the large green environment, glowing in the light of the red flare. Looking out, there was shrubbery upon rocks, pine trees that deceived of a surrounding tropical environment, a stream in the distance that trickled down from a mountain. The captivity would make even the largest animal-rights enthusiast put down their torches and pitchforks.

Kohaku wrapped an arm around her head jokingly blocking her view, "Young children shouldn't watch."

Rin pieced together the clues to the horrific puzzle and gasped, wiggling her way out of her cousin's grasp. "Kohaku, he's going to eat the goat?!"

Sota uneasily dug his hands into his pockets, "Rin, we could wait outside if you want." He tried his best at being cordial and sincere but Rin inched away from him still holding onto Kohaku.

"It's okay," she mumbled and drew out from behind Kohaku but on the other side of him, away from Sota. Kohaku couldn't help the smug expression that appeared on his face just then.

Sota scratched his head in confusion.  _Was he not doing this watching kids thing, right?_

Rin blinked her brown eyes out into the unknown of the dog demon's perimeter, and then something pale contrasting against the greenery took away her ability to speak. A faint tremor began to vibrate beneath her feet and soon the pulsation of the concrete was audible and loud, causing a stir at first from the rest of the bodies in the observatory but then rendering them quiet.

And then he appeared in front of her like an angel cast from the heavens.

The commotion and whispering thinned out to a chilling silence as everybody held their breath at the sight of Sessshomaru approaching the bleating goat. With each colossal furry paw placed in front of the other the trembling resonated. His limbs looked like they were about to rip apart from the muscles that the fur captured beneath and all the paws were matted in an ocean of white fur that ended in razor sharp looking claws the size of most large sedans. His ears flew by the sides of his head like downy-looking drapery to frame his long snout with a row of fangs that could rip apart flesh like it was cotton candy.

To say he was gigantic would be to put the sheer size of the dog-demon to shame. He was a massive living skyscraper, and a spectacle to behold.

Rin meant to shield her eyes in her cousin's clothing but she couldn't tear herself away. For a flashing moment it was almost like the demon's bleeding-red glowing eyes made contact with hers and she felt like she was falling through time and space. Had it happened in her mind, or had it happened in reality, she couldn't decipher within her eight-year old head, but the damage had been done and where once her favorite animal may have been a bunny rabbit, it was now the creature that sprayed blood against the window as its salivating mouth crashed down on the goat.

Some cringed and some gasped in awe, applauding afterwards, jumping with joy and Kohaku and Sota joined them in the excitement. Sota had been here a couple times before but he had to admit, every time Sesshomaru came into view, it was hard not to fall in love with this park time and time again. The magic of Feudal World echoed it's affects through time and he was sure he wasn't the only one that would often muse, _how is it possible that humans somehow survived these creatures? How were humans the ones that ultimately slayed themselves in labs, bringing the demons back to life?_

Afterwards Sesshomaru retreated back to whatever corner of the captivity he came from, probably one that didn't have hundreds of human eyes gawking at him. The crowd, still buzzing with excitement, lined up to exit the building.

Kohaku noticed that Rin was no longer attached to his side and was staring out at the window again, her small palms splayed and her nose pressed against the glass.

"Are you okay, Rin?" He called out.

Without looking back at him, she grinned as the last glimpse of the demon's snowy tail exited her sight, "That was amazing."

* * *

They bee-lined it to the wolf-demon section of the theme park but stopped at the lagoon in the center before continuing. The water was a dark blue, not the commercial advertised clear turquoise, and the only way to look into the tank was to cross the tunnel that bridged the east end of the park with the west. The tunnel had a stretch of thick glass, the same glass used for all the observatories, but it arched along the underwater tunnel to get a better view of the demon that they had enclosed within it.

"Is that where they keep the crocodile demon?" Kohaku asked while peering intently at the waves lapping against the concrete walls that bordered the tank.

Sota reached for the brochure in his pocket for reference, "Yeah, that's where they keep her." He spotted something of note, "She only eats once a day though."

Rin was still in a daze from the Sesshomaru feeding and twirled in place while humming, not minding the chatter around her.

Kohaku glanced at her suspiciously and agreed with his earlier sentiment;  _Rin was definitely weird_.

"So wolf-demons first, and then crocodile and then home?" Sota said pleadingly while clasping his hands in front of him in a child-like manner, mimicking a move his sister often utilized to get her way. Rin's stomach made a squeaky, gurgling noise and both older men stared down at her. "Lunch somewhere in between that?" Sota opened his hands up in offer.

"Uh…" Kohaku made a revolted face and continued to his previous destination, "What about the gyrosphere?"

Sota nodded in understanding, placing the folded brochure back in his pocket, "Well you're here for the week right? Why not do the gyrosphere tomorrow? There's always time to come back tomorrow." He decided it would be best _not_  to mention his date plans later for that evening. Hopefully after Rin and Kohaku were safely tucked away in bed.

* * *

The Wolf-Demon paddock was much smaller than the ' _Lord Sesshomaru'_ section of the park, but was still impressive by all accounts. It was a much more open area, and lacked any glass windows to look into. There was a large moat that stopped the wolf demons from reaching the people on the other side but Rin still shrunk back, unconvinced of its ability to contain the animals.

Kohaku glanced at his watch and then back at the large sign in front of him with the times etched into the wood manually, averse to the electronic time panels that he had seen at all the previous exhibits. Kohaku personally liked the personal touch to the wild feel the enclosure had going.

A large tan hand smacked down soundly on the top of the board and the boy jumped back in surprise.

"You like it? My own personal touch," A large smile uncovered a pair of sharp incisors that blinded the eye with their sparkle, "These white-collars think we need to go all future-like and  _electronic-y_ , but I get sick of seeing everything look so similar. I like the old way of doing things." He propped one bare leg on the elevated ledge behind him, "And I like leaving a mark on things."

Rin was completely hidden from view behind Kohaku and was trembling like a leaf. Sota shot Kohaku a confused glance and the boy shrugged.

The smile on the man's face shrunk down and he flicked his long black pony-tail from his shoulder to his back, "What's wrong with her?" He pointed accusingly.

Sota chuckled nervously, "I think she's just shy."

Kohaku wrapped an arm behind him, pushing her out to the left and Rin finally stepped out from behind him, cautiously.

A blast of blue irises engulfed her vision as the man knelt down in front of her on thick haunches, "Are you scared of me, girl?"

"Her name's Rin," Kohaku said defensively.

Rin continued to shake.

"Well, Rin?" The man held out a large hand attached to dense fingers, "Are you scared of ol, Koga?"

Kohaku's eyes bulged out of their sockets,  _this was Koga_?! In retrospect, he should have assumed so, judging by his attire, it was the traditional garb of a keeper/trainer, but in his haste to protect Rin, he had completely overlooked it. The tall man looked like the spitting image of the advertisement on the billboards posted all around the city, a handsome shiny grin and glistening black locks, held up in a high pristine pony-tail. Kohaku inwardly envied his hair styling skills and self-consciously reached behind his head to tug at his distressed ends. Those lightning blue eyes, were so much more ridiculously  _blue_  in real life and Kohaku felt himself breathing harshly, unable to understand how a man could be beautiful. Why couldn't he be this beautiful? Is this why women laughed at him? Was this it?  _What was he saying?_

"Are you okay, dude?"

Koga's deep voice snapped him out of his stupor and Kohaku stood straight, his hand falling from his hair rapidly.

"Why were you just pulling at your hair like that?" Rin asked contritely.

He looked at her scornfully, realizing he probably looked pretty stupid just now. "I had an itch."

"You scratch your head by pulling on your hair?" She jabbed, provoked by his attitude.

"I don't want to mess up my hair."

"It's already a mess."

"You're a mess."

Sota stepped in between them, flashing Koga an apologetic look, "Now now…kids." He felt sweat start to bead down his temple, hearing his mother's voice slip out of his mouth.

Kohaku crossed his arms and pursed his lips, while Rin stuck out her small-pink tongue at him.

Koga chuckled raising himself up from his muscular legs and readjusting the tight shorts on his waist. Sota felt himself begin to get strangely uncomfortable, since when Koga stood at full height in front of him, his face landed directly in front of his pectorals. He shifted his sight down but was met with pulsating calves. The park's wardrobe department had originally given Koga long imposing khaki's, but he had told them to go  _straight to hell_ , because he didn't do leg-day for nothing.

"It's okay," The man said in his booming voice, as Sota took a few steps back, colliding with a crowd of, up until this point, silent fangirls, "My wolves are the same exact way."

All three of them looked at him like he had just grown a second head while the posse of females behind them swooned and cheered and squealed.

Koga smirked and picked up a whistle necklace around his neck and wrapped his lips around it, and blew sharply.

The girls behind them went wild and Rin looked at them, appalled.

Instantly two brown wolves, one with a natural forming fauxhawk on the top of its head, and the other with a puff of fur on its forehead that was a different color from the rest of his body, appeared and it was obvious that they were previously asleep because of their half-lidded eyes and clumsy demeanor. The one with the puff opened its massive jaws in a wide yawn and then his brother copied the action.

"Ginta! Hakkaku!" Koga admonished, his fists quickly going to his hips faking anger. The wolves' shoulders scrunched, but then their trainer flashed them a glorious smile full of meaty promise, "You hungry boys?"

Their ears perked and their mouths began to water despite just being fed. They neared the moat, their paws leaving giant imprints in the earth. The crowd behind the trio was growing now, and although the fangirls were still loudly bristling behind them, there were now children and families, all eager to watch.

Koga called out to his assistant, a leggy pig-tailed red-head who waltzed by the group, shooting a scathing glance at the girls and setting the bucket down with a scandalous bend at her waist. She flipped her vibrantly colored hair from her shoulder and rose. She jutted out a hip targeting the females with a wild territorial glare. As if to say,  _this is mine, do not assume it is yours, keep your distance_.

And the message was heard, the girls quieting and shrinking back.

"Thank you, Ayame." Koga said graciously, in a voice reserved just for her.

She blew an air of frustration from her nostrils, "Koga, I'm not going to tell you again, I'm not your assistant. I'm the new  _trainer_  for the demons on the north end of the enclosure, it's been three whole months. Remember? The new females we're supposed to pair with the males?"

He ignored everything she said and patted her on the head, to which she swatted away viciously.

"See if I help any, with pairing up your pathetic wolves with  _mine_." Sota heard her grumble as she trudged away, her hard foot-steps leaving fire in their wake.

Koga reached into the large bucket and took out a fresh piece of red meat, the smell of raw beef saturating his senses, "Who's ready for a show?"

* * *

After the wolf demons had acquired their fill of meat, they lolled out in the sun with protruded bellies and Kohaku along with the rest of the crowd (minus a squabble of girls who became courageous again after Ayame left) began to venture to other sections of the park. But Kohaku noticed that Sota had lagged behind, conversing with the handsome trainer over gym-tips. Kohaku couldn't hear exactly what they were talking about but Koga lifted his leg on the ledge again and strained the muscles in his thighs to exaggeratedly point at something and show Sota. The teenager rolled his eyes, turning back to the exit.

_Wait a second-_

This was his moment! This was when Kohaku could break from the babysitter and spend the rest of the day looking at exhibits, riding the gryosphere and consuming his weight in theme park junk food. His eye grew wide,  _corn dogs and funnel cake._

With a quick glance backwards to make sure Sota was still occupied he dashed forward, swerving in-between masses of people and gaining some distance away from the older man. It wasn't until he decided he was far enough away, gasping for breath and staring down at a dropped park map that he stopped, one hand leaned against the wall of a neighboring gift shop.

"I'm free," He said, sounding completely enthralled for the first time since he had stepped foot into the park. "I'm _free_!"

And that's when he felt a small knowing tug on the back of his shirt and he froze up.  _No._

"Kohaku?" Wide-innocent eyes bent down to look at him owlishly from under his bent elbow against the fake feudal-hut styled shop. "Where are we goin'?"

He looked at her with a blank expression before shaking his head in defeat. "We're going on the gyrosphere ride." He finally responded, pushing off from the wall and holding out his hand.

She took it without hesitation.

* * *

Inuyasha drove down the dirt road, after being pointed in the right direction by a security guard who had shown him the way without question, immediately recognizing the ears. That was probably the only cool thing about them,  _other than his excellent hearing_ , no need for further identification. The drive from the dog-demon paddock to the new enclosure that Kikyo had asked of him to visit was in reality maybe a 45-minute drive, and without traffic (which there never was) he could make it in less than 30 minutes, but since he was dreading the confrontation, his foot was on the break often and he cruised at 40 mph, making it there in just over an hour. He looked into the side-mirror of the jeep to see where the sun was hanging in the sky and sucked his teeth, not wanting the day to end.

But at the same time,  _wanting it to end immediately_ , he thought as he pulled up to the large roofless building. Some of it was propped up by men in harnesses and face shields, welding more support onto the walls. It looked to Inuyasha, like they were building it bigger. He breathed uneasily,  _what did they have holed up in there?_

He hadn't even made it two steps out of the vehicle before a billowing lab coat entered his vision, attached to a long-legged beauty with a stern look on her face.

"I'm glad you could make it." She said civilly, her hands meeting in front of her in a cordial stance.

"Keh," He looked to the side embarrassed suddenly, but by what he didn't want to know. He shut the door to his jeep with his foot and walked towards her, letting her lead the way up the staircase into the observatory part of the enclosure.

"So what's exactly in this thing?" He asked curiously with a raised dark eye-brow, once again eyeing the men hanging from their supports.

"Corporate calls him  _Naraku Rex_ , but-" She stopped at him smothering a mocking laugh and squinted behind her, unamused.

"Naraku  _Rex_? Are you kidding me?"

Kikyo closed her eyes, momentarily annoyed, and then continued up the steps, this time putting a little more weight into the stairs than necessary, "Yes well, we didn't want to copy Sesshomaru's exhibit and name him _Lord Naraku."_ She said pointedly.

Inuyasha shrugged, suddenly uncaring and they both filed into the room with the traditional arch window.

Silence. Inuyasha cleared his throat, Kikyo scratched at her cheek.

"Did you bring the bike?" She asked, involuntarily slipping into the norm casual talk that they used to engage in a long time ago. It felt both like it was just yesterday that they last saw each other, but also as if the last time they communicated was a life-time ago. The only time either heard the other's voice, was when they were passing messages through the professional  _.org_  email. The last subject in particular having to deal with her cousin's new job position.

"No," Inuyasha scratched the left of his neck with his opposite hand, "I took the jeep."

She nodded, stupidly realizing she had known that but forgot, the loops of her hair style sweeping against her ears, "How fairs the assistant?" She added smoothly.

At the mention of Kagome, Inuyasha's memory recalled a figure dancing in his rear view mirror. But because of it, he felt himself getting defensive and his lips drew together tightly while involuntarily blushing, "She'll be eaten alive by the end of next week. Like the last one you sent me."

Kikyo tsked, "Mr. Takashi there is no need to be so morbid."

He made a sound of disagreement, "There's no need for you to be  _cold_  either."

She didn't have to be a rocket scientist,  _albeit she was_ , to comprehend he was trying to stray into another topic. One that had been heavily argued over, a  _long_  time ago.

"You know, this creature is  _sensitive_  to smell," Kikyo shot back, hoping to steer conversation, "Did you not think to change before you arrived?"

Inuyasha's nose flared, "I'm not gonna change."

And suddenly they weren't talking about his clothes anymore.

Kikyo hummed, turning her focus back to the enclosure, eyeing the corners for any sudden movement. Anything to get her mind off the half-demon. A tense feeling began to crawl its way up her spine, with Inuyasha standing so close. She hadn't been within five feet of him since…that awkward night. The memory of  _her falling into his arms during a night out to unwind and him taking it the wrong way and thinking that it was a good time as any to express his feelings_ …she shut her eyes, urging her brain to block the image out of her head. To no avail.

" _Inuyasha-" She wanted to finish her sentence but he read everything she was trying to convey within the abyss of her expression. His arms loosened around her thin arms._

" _You don't feel the same…" She pushed away from him, finding her footing again. Confused by his confession she, reached up to grab her temple._

" _Because I'm not human."_

_And before she could correct him, wanting to drunkenly insult him and call him a 'drama king', he was gone, and she was too proud to tell him any different._

Years of close and trusting friendship, rendered to emails and blasé work phone calls.

"So to make it clear, you are here to give us your…professional opinion on Naraku Rex's paddock." At his derisive frown at the mention of her creation's name again, she found offense and added, "Although I cannot believe Dr. Hojo would have picked  _you_ of all people to handle this."

Inuyasha couldn't help the sneer that vacated his mouth in a burst of anger, "I still can't believe you're naming him, Naraku  _Rex_ "

"Corporate wanted something cool." Kikyo clarified again.

"So you thought…Naraku… _Rex_."

"No, I thought  _Araneae Quad-Morphus_ , but corporate felt that it wasn't simple enough for a child to say, and they suggested something more…demonic."

Inuyasha had to admit,  _King of Hell_ , was probably as demonic as names could go. But he wouldn't concede to it out loud. He scoffed instead, "You just go and make up a new demon. When are you going to stop bringing the dead to life, in a world they don't belong in."

Something about the way he said that quietly made Kikyo look at him clearly now. She wanted to assuage him and the demons that plagued him mentally; let him know that he  _did_  belong, but there was no point. They were not who they used to be. She went with the professional approach and stayed on the topic at hand.

"It's not a moment of resurrecting, rather  _reinvention_."

They fell into another lapse of silence as Inuyasha mulled over her words.

"So tell me about this thing? What's it made of?"

Kikyo pursed her lips, "That is classified."

Inuyasha looked at her dispassionately, "Okay…"

"Like I have previously stated, Dr. Hojo wanted you to take a look at the paddock, note any weaknesses, and  _he_ was curious as to whether or not you can manage to train it. So that we can at least get it come out into the open when we want it to. Right now Naraku tends to…" She stepped slightly closer to the glass, narrowing her eyes at the slight movement in a patch of high leaves. She bent forward a fraction when she finally saw his dark-red eyes stare directly back at her. "…stay where we cannot  _easily_  spot him."

"I can't just train a  _random_  demon." He said offended at the mere idea.

"You trained the dogs, did you not?"

Inuyasha paced shaking his head, "My girls are all siblings, and they develop social skills. I imprinted on them when they were born, this is way different."

The image of a disgruntled Inuyasha with demon puppies on his lap, almost made Kikyo smile, "So what do you suggest to make him more sociable? Play dates? He did not exactly do well with his own brother."

"He has a brother? Where is he?"

Kikyo turned with a drawn smile, "He ate it," as if saying,  _those silly demons._

Inuyasha pulled a disgusted face, crossing his arms across his chest, the logo of Feudal World stretching against his shoulder. "Then  _no_  to the play dates, probably not a good idea. Has he lived here all his life?"

Kikyo pressed a light-blue button on the wall next to her and a thin cylinder popped up mechanically from the ground. She played with the screen that appeared in front of her, trying to pin-point the asset's location. "Of course he has."

"This is all he knows? Are you joking?"

"Mr. Takashi," She began in a lofty tone, and his face contorted at her reference to him, "Not all our assets can be quite as  _small_  your puppies. And ' _this all he knows'_ , is a huge portion of our island. A billion dollars' worth, in fact." She continued to type away at the screen in front of her, impatiently shooting an order to the sleeping keeper on her right, "Drop a steer."

Being half-awake, the pudgy man's eyes snapped open in panic. He got up quickly and pushed a button to drop the meat with sweaty fingers. Kikyo and Inuyasha's head turned instantly to the clear window, training their eyes on the hunk of dead meat hanging by transparent strings that were held by a large crane.

"It's not even alive? You don't make it hunt?" Inuyasha asked in disbelief.

Kikyo felt her eyes blink rapidly to avoid tears from forming in frustration. He hadn't spotted out a single good thing so far and  _god forbid_ the doctor had heard him talk like this, or else he'd probably push back the contract for another year. Also, Inuyasha's ability to cause her emotions to run rampant through her psyche never ceased to amaze her.

"No. Our asset gets pampered." She answered.

"The asset?" He said, his voice dripping venom, "You do realize these things are  _alive_ , don't you? I know that might be difficult for you." Years of tension wrung tight in the air like a rubber band pulled to its snapping point.

The brilliant scientist couldn't hear the own noise of her sharp manicured nails drawing screeches, as she raked them down the post of the touch screen in front of her. "Mr. Takashi-," She began.

"And why are you calling me Mr. Takashi?" He stepped close to her, his ears drawn back. Before she could form any words from her jarred open lips he continued in a low voice, "As if you don't know me? As if that night at the-"

"Inuyasha," He stopped at the sudden dread in her tone. When their eyes met, he saw the brown in her glance swimming with confusion and alarm and terror. "The steer's never been out for this long."

When Kikyo began using contractions…that was when the half-demon knew something was terribly wrong. The steer that floated just above the ground hung there in foreboding. They moved quickly; Kikyo rushed to one side of the room where large glowing screens reflected the different portions of the paddock and Inuyasha's pony tail whipped past her as he kept his keen vision focused beyond the palm trees and shrubbery of the enclosure. He half-listened to her heels click away at a fast pace while she used more extensive methods to search for the creature and he jogged to the other side of the observatory, spotting something white against the concrete of the wall that bordered them on the outside.

"Have those claw-marks always been there?"

Kikyo's heart felt like lead in her chest as she turned around slowly, her mouth going dry. "Has… _what_?"

Inuyasha extended a finger at the glass towards the white gashes that lined the concrete barricade, "Those  _claw-marks_. They're going up the wall." He answered as he followed the lines up to the edge of the top.

"That's not…possible… _I just saw him_!"

Her breath was coming in short pants, and the half-demon had hold himself back from placing a comforting hand on her coated shoulder. There was an ocean between them, full of mistakes and doubts and unwillingness to forgive, so he stayed rooted to his post.

"He's not showing up on the thermal detector." A shaky voice spoke from behind Kikyo, it was the keeper and he was anxiously wringing his wrists, the blaring of the alarm on the monitors behind them muting his voice, "But he was just here. We saw him on the thermal scanner. And I've been here this whole time. You've been here this whole time. How could he-when could he...Dr. Kikyo?"

Kikyo's right hand had reached up to keep her head balanced on her neck because it felt ready to roll away. Her eyes were saucers as she looked at the floor in utter disbelief, "How…"

" _You think a creature 25 feet high, almost 60 feet across, wouldn't try to escape?"_

Dr. Hojo's voice bounced around like wrecking balls in her head.

"He has a tracker in his back," Kikyo suddenly spoke out loud, latching onto the first thing that made sense in her mind, "I can track it from the control room." Without a moment's hesitation she ran out the sliding doors, her lab coat tailing behind her like a cape.

Inuyasha went back to inspecting the claw-marks, his eyes narrowing in suspicion. He climbed out? Without anyone noticing? A creature that large…

He called out to the large man, whom was nervously still staring at the rotting steer, "Hey."

Inuyasha had surprised him and he jumped back.

"Can we go in?"

The man swallowed, "In there…?" He pointed to beyond the glass.

"Yeah, in there. I want to get a closer look at those marks."

* * *

Kikyo stepped on the acceleration pedal of her BMW SUV as if her life depended on it,  _which it technically did if all assumptions were true._ Because corporate was going to eat her  _alive_  if the asset had somehow escaped. She gritted her teeth at the sound of the dial tone still ringing in her ear, "Come on, come on-!"

" _Kiky-"_

" **WE HAVE AN ASSET OUT OF CONTAINMENT**!" Kikyo blared into the microphone of her phone's receiver, her right hand trembling on the steering wheel.

The voice on the other end of the phone urged her to calm down, "What's going on, Kikyo, explain-"

"We have an asset out of containment, I need you to track Naraku, right now. Track him, send Special Forces, send the Containment team, Naraku is  _not_  in his paddock. Track him  _NOW_!" Kikyo had trouble holding onto the phone as she made a dangerously sharp turn on a steep cliff. She felt herself on the precipice of a heart-wrenching sob. She suddenly thought about all the children that she had just greeted into the park earlier that day, since they were currently running a promotion for orphanages.  _Free admission, including a lunch voucher_. She gasped into the phone involuntarily, her memory jumping to the way Naraku brutally engulfed and ate his brother,  _right after birth._ She also recalled the numerous times he had swallowed a steer whole. His jaws snapping loudly, his teeth melting through the fleshy material like it was butter, like it was  _nothing_.

The shaking of her hands had now reached her entire body and she dropped her phone by accident. She cried out as it landed in the crevice between the seat and the side door closest to her.

She heard garbled speaking through the speaker but couldn't make out what her employee was saying until she had finally fished it out with twitching fingers.

"-k _yo, it's still in the enclosure! Kikyo! Kikyo_?" She eased off the pedal, blinking in confusion, relief attempting to put out the fire in her heart.  _But the thermal detectors..._

She didn't have a second to breathe calmly though, because the following words that spewed out of the phone dropped ice into her veins, " _Kikyo there are people in the cage. Kikyo why are there people in the cage?"_  A voice in the background recognized one of the endangered bodies immediately-

" _Is that **Inuyasha**  in the enclosure?  **Naraku**  is in there! Kikyo, I repeat-"_

She twisted her face away from the dashboard of her car and threw up all over the passenger seat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I FINALLY FINISHED. (this chapter) Goddamn. Sorry if you felt I added way too many unnecessary, scenes, I'm just trying to fit everyone that I want to fit in while attempting to also insert some comedy. Not sure if I'm doing the comedy thing right, I have a weird sense of humor. As for the 'new moon' thing, didn't think I'd make it easy for him, did ya?
> 
> Things are finally starting to lead up to stuff. I'm going to lay down now because I'm tired. Leave a review if you spot something I messed up on, or if you wanted to make me smile, or if you think there's something I could be doing better. I know writers often write for themselves, but I don't mind adding ideas as long as they are good ideas.


	6. Chapter 6

**5**

**Naraku Wrecks**

* * *

Kikyo rushed into the control room, her heels sliding to a halt as she heaved heavy breaths, bent over panting for air. She wiped the bile residue from the corner of her mouth and gave one more quavering breath before fluidly turning to look at a woman with a headset, "Get them out of there,  _now_."

* * *

Inuyasha ventured a bit further into the forest, looking for any clues as to if the creature had leapt onto the wall and then climbed out or if he had simply waltzed up to it…

"Do you see any marks up there?" He called over at the trembling keeper who was farther ahead him, near the large double doors.

The man readjusted his hat and licked his dry lips, attempting to keep the tremor out of his voice, "No… Inuyasha sir, can we head back now?" He looked around feverishly, one arm reaching up to reassuringly hug his shoulder.

"Listen, what the hell are you so afraid of? Didn't the heat detectors say there was no signat-"

Broken radio screeching interrupted them.

" _Ge- ou-"_

The pudgy man fiddled with his headset and Inuyasha's ears twitched, straining to hear what was being said over the speaker.

"What's the problem?" The man asked into the mic.

" _It's in the cage, it's in there with you!"_

And at that same exact moment they both heard a deep rumbling noise, and an unearthly cry that resonated somewhere within the dense foliage in front of them. Frozen to the spot, they then peered up into the trees as a section of the forest began to move and separate. Inuyasha's heart slowed to a murmuring halt. He didn't need his demon blood to smell the sudden foul odor that abused his senses.

Instantly both their eyes locked onto a spot that ceased movement, standing at 20-ft tall in front of them on all fours.

Naraku breathed through his razor sharp teeth, his purple saliva dripping from his jaws, the source of the stench, with a savage thirsty look in his eight, red, blinkless eyes.

The pudgy man was the first to move, his fear addressing his limbs as he rushed to the nearest way out: the large doors behind him.

"Fuck!" Inuyasha was next, the adrenaline shooting pure panic into his veins as he pumped his legs, not sure of where he was running to, just knowing that it was probably hopeless. When he turned, he caught a glimpse of the creature as it charged, its mouth open in an earth-shattering cry. But his legs felt like lead beneath him, and the panic morphed into sheer terror as he realized that already his abilities were fading with the oncoming of the new moon. His speed was hitching to a slower pace than he was accustomed, and the creature behind him was gaining momentum.

He felt the weight of the animal vibrate the earth beneath his boots and his golden eyes targeted the pudgy man, keeping track of him as he slipped, screaming, through a crack in the large doors in front of him. Inuyasha needed to be on the other side of those doors.

The doors were closing faster than he could reach them though, and Inuyasha realized in that moment that despite his demon blood, despite all his careful diligence and speed and fortitude, things had taken a terrible turn for the worse and he was about to die.

* * *

_Seconds earlier-_

"Close the doors!"

"No!" Kikyo roared back at the order, apologetically looking at the girl who had addressed her, her body still shaking. "Inuyasha is still in there!"

The group at the control room all turned their gazes at her, a mix of judgement and fear mingled in their confused expressions.

"Inuyasha's still in there," She repeated, attempting to control the tone in her voice.

_So is a 20-ft hybrid demon that's capable of eating everything in its path._  The cool calculated voice in her head reasoned. Kikyo bit her tongue, unable to stomach the idea of purposely condemning her old friend to death.

_But…_

Against her will she steadily lifted her right hand and pushed the button to close the paddock doors despite her earlier protests.  _For the greater good,_  she told herself, attempting to hold steadfast against the desire to sob.

_Please make it out._

* * *

"Kohaku," Rin pulled at the tail of his shirt to gain his attention, "Are there going to be…meat-eaters in the gyrosphere?"

Kohaku couldn't hear her past the burning in his ears when he noticed another squad of girls giggling quietly to themselves, while cautiously peering up at him with their sparkling eyes.

Rin frowned up at him in contempt, "Kohaku! Stop being creepy!"

The girls burst into cackling and disappeared from view when they boarded the ride.

Kohaku's whole face was drenched in a violent flush of red as he glared at the small girl, "Thanks."

She shuffled from side to side uncomfortably, pouting, "Well I was talking to you…"

He sighed, propping his chin in his palm as he leaned against the gate they were standing in queue behind. They were up next for the gyrosphere, whenever another one of the glass balls rolled into position. "What did you say?"

The thought of her own question gave Rin a pang to her stomach and she chewed her lip, "Will there be meat-eaters on this ride?"

"Carnivores," He corrected.

"Carnivores." She parroted, "Will there be carnivores?"

"Nope, just a bunch of humble giant herbivores."

"Herbivores." Rin mimicked, trying the word out for the first time. "I'm glad."

"Yeah me too," Kohaku lied. In truth the idea of riding alongside giant prehistoric  _carnivores_ was titillating. It was everything he'd ever wanted out of life. Where his sister strove for organization of all living things, he lived for the freedom that chaos invited. Ever since he could remember he'd wanted to be out here among the resurrected demons. The unexpected and unknown, where you couldn't distinguish what could happen next.

A large glass ball rolled up into view, big enough for two seats. Rin wiped her sweaty hands on her skirt and glanced at Kohaku's open hand at his side. She wanted to move to grab it, if only to calm her jittery nerves but she relented. She was a big girl, and she had chosen to follow him, it wouldn't be fair to show fear now.

"Ready?" The pony-tailed woman who manned the controls asked them in a bored tone. "You're next."

She chewed her bubblegum loudly as the short gate that held Kohaku and Rin opened. The glass sphere opened vertically, sliding out to allow them entrance. The pair carefully climbed in and situated themselves comfortably. Rin squirmed in her blue seat and nervously fingered the straps that were supposed to belt her to the contraption.

_Why did we need straps?_  Her mind buzzed worriedly.

When she couldn't figure it out fast enough, the woman standing near them bent down to latch her into it securely. The finality of the clicking sound on the belt-buckle made Rin jump. This was happening. They were about to be set loose amongst giant roaming demons.

_But they were herbivores_ , she thought, trying to calm herself.

They weren't going to have sharp teeth and they weren't going to try and eat them.

She breathed out of her mouth and grasped the harness around her shoulders that met in a buckle near her thighs. Her fingers turned white with how tight she was gripping the foam covered fastenings.

"Hey," Kohaku said. "Relax. It's going to be fun, trust me."

She blinked at him and with her cousin's reassuring grin she felt herself getting a bit lighter. Could she trust this stranger?  _Yes_ , she decided. She could trust Kohaku.

_They were going to be fine,_  she settled as the ride smoothly lurched forward and they rolled out into the open field.

_No carnivores_.

* * *

By some miracle, Inuyasha channeled the last burst of demon speed he possessed and slid through the crack of the large closing doors, but Naraku's decaying breath was right behind him. The creature forced his enormous snout in between the closing concrete door and the wall it was supposed to meet, the mechanics giving way and creaking loudly against the overpowering strength of the hybrid monster. Inuyasha didn't even as much as glance behind him, he got back on his two feet, and kept running against the resolve of his screaming tendons. He caught sight of two options, either he could keep running and eventually get eaten or he could slide underneath his jeep and pray that the creature would run past him. Concrete went flying as Naraku tore through his containment, all hell breaking loose. The smaller pieces of rock, pushing against Inuyasha's back like bricks, just as he dropped down and rolled under the vehicle.

His nose scraped against the pavement, his hands lifting his chest from the ground to peer out from beneath the jeep. Naraku's massive black legs pounded against the ground. His skin was tight and almost entirely hairless except for bits of it crawling up his legs. Although Inuyasha also could've sworn he had sprouting bits of fur that ran down his back, from the last time he glimpsed at him and he noted that his back legs were almost twice the size of his front ones. Naraku's talons curved into the earth and dug at the dirt, while his tail danced just above the surface, ending in a mass of tentacles that whipped around in the air.

He slowly began to walk closer to the jeep that Inuyasha was hidden under.

_So much for this stupid idea,_  he wanted to groan. He was a sitting snack, his pulse beating so loudly in his ears that he couldn't hear the sound of his own breathing.

But then the feet stopped just in front of him, three large claws absorbing his view, one claw in particular twitching up and down sporadically and a fourth one hitched high up on his bulbous ankle. He was still, and it looked like he was focusing on something nearby. _Did he know where he was? Was he just playing with him?_ Inuyasha could hear a faint cry for help, and his amber eyes finally made contact with whatever it was that Naraku was staring intently at.

It was the keeper, and he was hiding in front of a parked truck. Although " _hiding_ " may have been an over-exaggeration since Naraku could obviously see right over it. The keeper's arms had come around to hug himself tightly, and he was shivering, his tears streaking down against his cheeks, snot dribbling down his nose to his chin. He turned his head as if he could feel Inuyasha's eyes on him and they locked onto each other, the green meeting gold; the half-demon under the jeep and the man in front of the towering monster. There was a pleading look in the man's sea colored eyes and Inuyasha wished there was something he could do. His mind raced with all the possible alternatives, there had to be something,  _anything_. If he just distracted the monster long enough to allow the other man to run, it might be possible to save him and then-

In a single sweeping crunch, Naraku's jaws clamped over the vulnerable body and all Inuyasha could see and feel and smell, was blood. With his snout still dug in the dirt, the flesh of the man dripping from his heavy fangs, the nostrils flared out causing the debris to wind under the jeep. Inuyasha forced down the desire to cough, his lungs assailed by dust.

_Sensitive to smell._

Without another thought, Inuyasha rolled over onto his back and thanked the gods that he still had his claws, as he swiped at the fuel tubes under the vehicle and drenched himself in the toxic and rancid smelling oil. He clamped his mouth shout as the liquid ran all over his body and he anxiously continued to rub it up and down his body. He ceased movement as the beast lifted his head and neared the jeep again. Inuyasha couldn't tear his eyes away from the bottom of the jeep as he counted his blessings, not daring to look to his side. Inuyasha's courage wavered when the demon bent down, his head too large to peer under the truck but angling himself so that he could take a good whiff of whatever was hiding beneath.

Naraku's nostrils flared once more, inhaling, in hopes of smelling something interesting, but when the burst of oil assaulted his senses he sneezed grumpily and snarled a high-pitched cry. He reared back from the jeep and shook his head, the mane on his back moving along with his actions. Swinging his heavy tail back and forth, Naraku bellowed once more and charged out of the clearing.

Inuyasha counted a few more seconds before finally opening his mouth to take in a much needed breath of air, feeling the relief of survival flush into his veins like cool water on a hot day, his heart pounding in his chest.

When he felt sure that he was in the clear, he rolled back out from under the vehicle, standing up to take a better look at his surroundings. It was quiet. Where there were once at least a few bodies of men welding the paddock, there wasn't a soul. Inuyasha fished the keys for the jeep out of his pocket, but when he jammed the key into the ignition, it stuttered before finally giving out. He frowned, confused…until he remembered what he had done to the fuel pipes.

He banged his head against the steering wheel, narrowly missing the horn.

He shut his eyes in agitation, wracking his brain for ways to get back to the control room. He knew exactly where it was, not far at all in a car, especially if he pressed hard on the acceleration pedal. And normally he could just run, but with his human speed now as it was, it would take much longer.

Finally giving up, he kicked open the door of the useless vehicle and adjusted his pants, getting ready for the long marathon.

Until something flashed silver at the corner of his vision, and he turned anxiously to see what it was. A disco ball keychain attached to a set of car keys lay innocently on the ground in front of him.

The keys were lathered in blood, and Inuyasha miserably realized they had belonged to the eaten man just moments ago.

He didn't hesitate though; he picked them up with a murmuring apology. When he found which jeep they belonged to by pressing the unlock buttons and seeing which headlights lit up, he put the transmission into drive and roared away from the bloodshed behind him.

* * *

Kikyo's dark brown eyes looked around in the pregnant silence of the control room. The only sound was the faint beeping of a red dot on the large monitor, which showed the demon moving rapidly towards the apex of the park. The asset was being tracked down to the exact coordinates of its immediate location.

"Everyone…remain….calm." She finally said slowly, walking towards the monitor, eyeing the red blinking dot with a calculated gaze.

"We need to evacuate the park," A voice in the background braved to speak up but Kikyo shook her head in rejection of the idea.

"If we do a hard evacuation it'll cause a panic. We need to do this quickly but quietly. The survival; the very  _existence_  of this park is structured around our ability to control situations like this." After a few seconds she sighed forlornly and added, "This was an inevitability."

She faintly heard the sound of a voice calling out for "more security", and she twisted her body to finally catch sight of a dog-eared half-demon, with a face full of disgust and scorn, covered from head to toe in mud and dirt and blood.

"Sir-you can't pass without ID! Sir!" A larger man in a suit with ear bud-speakers attempted to stop his pace but Kikyo made contact with him and held up her hand to stop his worrying.

"He's fine." She said, hiding her relief.  _He's alive_.

"An  _inevitability_?" Inuyasha spat at her. "Don't you think that's the type of thing you should put on the brochure? Fun attractions with the possibility that one of these damn monsters will  _escape_?"

She looked at him angrily, "We are working on containing the issue before anybody else-"

"Gets  _eaten_?"

She inhaled sharply and turned her back to him, referring to her staff, "Get me asset containment, send out a code 19 to the other paddocks, and let's start a soft evacuation of the park. Bring everybody in."

" _Asset containment_?" Inuyasha said incredulously. "Are you joking? You're going after him with non-lethals? I know you have more advanced weaponry in your arsenal, mount a M134 on a helicopter and smoke this thing before it kills any more peo-"

"I'm not about to turn this park into a warzone, Mr. Takashi." Kikyo shot back, "This asset is worth  _billions_  and took my lab years to put together, we're not going to just shoot it to the ground and kill it like some kind of revenge scheme."

Inuyasha knew that if it weren't for the night of the new moon and his powers fading into dull nothingness, he would have turned borderline full-demon with the insanity that was spewing from this woman's lips.

"Someone get Sango on the phone,  _now_." Kikyo ordered. "And bring up the ACU body cameras on the screen."

The monitor lit up with a group of people similarly dressed in all black armor with the words Asset Containment Unit on their sleeves. Inuyasha cursed at the image of their electric weapons that were meant to stun not kill.

"This is murder," Inuyasha said darkly, "You're leading them all to their deaths."

Kikyo glared at the monitor, ignoring him, crossing her arms along her chest, and silently prayed that would _not_  be the case. These soldiers were heavily trained and highly recommended. They were hired for this purpose and this purpose alone. Naraku Rex was a strong genetic hybrid, but he wasn't designed to be unstoppable.

When the blinking blue dot of the soldiers location at the top right panel of the screen signified they were nearing the still red dot of Naraku's, Inuyasha's hair stood high on end, his jaws clamping so tightly together than it made an audible grating noise as a growl bubbled in the back of his throat.

"Stop this!" He finally yelled, "Stop this  _now_. Pull them  _back_!"

"Mr. Takashi," Kikyo began-

"Don't  _Mr. Takashi_  me, that creature is no average demon , damnit. He's  _thinking_. He marked up that wall on purpose, Kikyo, don't forget that! He marked up that wall to fool us. You don't know  _what_  you're dealing with here."

"He is smart for a demon, that does not mean anyth-"

"How are you going to just pretend that doesn't mean anything? You have no idea what you're up against and you're throwing soldiers in as  _treats_. It somehow avoided thermal detection, did you even know it could do _that_? Get them out of there, Kikyo. Get them back, nuke the shit out of this thing and call it a fucking day."

The most brilliant scientist in all the island stomped on her heel, the sound of it echoing out against the metal framework of the control room, and flashed her scathing glare at the half-demon, determined to silence him, " _You are not in control here_. If you're not willing to help, then just leave, go back to your puppies and let us handle the asset the way we are  _supposed_  to. You are not paid to bark orders, you are paid to feed dogs."

Her words lit a fire in his gut and he was about to let a flurry of rage-laced words leave his mouth but a hushed man's voice interrupted them.

" _We're nearing Naraku."_

All eyes turned away from the dramatic argument to peer up at the large screen.

The blinking blue dot was on top of the red one.

The monitor showcased an abundance of dense foliage, the humidity slightly fogging up the lens on the body cameras.

The man it was attached to, looked like he was kneeling down into a trickling stream to pick up a sack of thick dark flesh, covered in blood, with a flashing light embedded in the black-red veins.

" _The blood hasn't clotted yet, he still has to be close."_  The voice informed quietly over the headset.

"What is that?" Inuyasha asked, parking himself closer to the display.

"It's the tracker." Kikyo answered steadily, her tall form stiffening.

"He clawed it out." Inuyasha said unsurprisingly.

One of the control workers got up from his seat and leaned forward over their panel in shock, "How would he know to do that?"

"Because," Inuyasha said, "He  _remembered_ where they put it in."

Kikyo swallowed.

After a few passing heartbeats, a steady thumping of the ground began to shake the camera. Then smoothly like the coming of a dark cloud on a stormy day, the trees around the soldiers took form and a dark-green skinned version of Naraku stepped out into the open, his crimson eyes locking onto all of the individuals in the area, a snarl tight on his lips, prepared to kill on sight.

On the display back in the control room, the complete image of Naraku was clear as day.

He had a slender body, like that of a four-legged mammal, but his legs were spider-like thin, dappled with patches of prickly dark hair. His snout resembled that of a canine, his fangs sharp and glistening in the sun. His heavy head was black, with multiple sets of red eyes sorting down to his nostrils in rows. His tail was the last thing to appear as it whipped around the trees in tentacles. Once he was out in the open, without the cover of the shrubbery, the green tint to his skin danced back into the voidless black that he was born with.

" _It can camouflage!_ " A soldier screamed, and Naraku let out a murderous roar that shook the earth. The saliva that dripped from his mouth clouded the lens in a purple smoke and soon the audio in the control room was filled with screaming and shrill calls for help. His prehensile tail jut out to wrap around three of the armed soldiers, to crush them in their grip in one quick motion, the morbid crunching of their bones filled Kikyo's ears just before the monster flung their crippled bodies away. She gasped and covered her mouth with her hands.

Inuyasha bit his cheeks while the rest of the control room erupted in hushed crying.

The soldiers shooting didn't pause despite the carnage, they continued to aim and fire at it, and one even succeeded in maiming the demon slightly on its back leg, to which Naraku turned to the offender and opened its jaws wide to swallow him, but instead of eating him, a sticky substance sprung out from his throat, engulfing the soldier in a web.

The last thing the camera caught, was Naraku's purple mouth as it consumed the body that the camera was attached to.

On the left panel of the display the heart-beats of the soldiers pulsed electronically. One by one, the pulses stood silent, the lines that proved they were still alive, motionless. Dead.

The monitor glowed blue, with nothing left to broadcast.

"Well you've gone and done it, Kikyo." Inuyasha whispered harshly. "You've definitely made a demon, because whatever the fuck that is, it came straight from  _hell_  itself."

Emotions were high, he wrapped his clawless hands around Kikyo's thin arm and tugged her to face him, "You need to evacuate. Not a soft evacuation. Not a partial evacuation. Everybody needs to get off this island. Now."

Kikyo wrestled herself out of his grip and glared daggers at him, "Inuyasha,  _leave_." She addressed the security officer waiting by the door, "Please escort Mr. Takashi off the control premises. He needs to help evacuate his paddock." Her voice was ice but her expression was tortured. Inuyasha saw the guilt in her eyes and suddenly felt guilty himself.

"Kikyo-" He started.

"Just go. I will send out a park-wide alert, we're going to do this slowly and professionally." She looked down at her heels in a moment of desperation, "This park won't  _survive_  this if we do not do this the right way. We will never open again. We do not want anyone to panic."

Inuyasha felt his nose scrunch up in disgust, "All you're ever worried about is this damn park. You know you have family out there…your cousin isn't it?"

"Even more of a reason for you to go to the paddock and make sure Kagome is safe, please." She whispered to him. There it was, the pleading voice that he couldn't deny no matter what he did. "Please Inuyasha, I need you to clear your section of the park, keep the assets safe, lock them up, and make sure your crew is off the island, including my cousins."

"Cousins?" He asked. "More than one?"

"Yes, Kagome has a little brother." Kikyo's hands began to tremble again at the reminder of her family and all the others that were in grave danger at the park, "His name is Sota."

* * *

Sota was running as his top speed, dashing and weaving through the crowds, his brown eyes searching relentlessly for any sign of a capped teenager alongside a little girl with a small side-pigtail.

_Where are they?_  His mind screamed, just before he ran over a squad of elementary children whose chaperones yelled at him to slow down. But there's no slowing down, he couldn't slow down. He had  _one_  job, to watch over Sango's little brother and young cousin, and he had fucked it up, and now he wasn't just going to get fired, he was going to be  _murdered._

He finally did stop at the center of the park, and climbed upon a nearby bench. He straightened up and lifted himself on his tippy-toes to get a better look at the all the foot traffic in front of him. They needed to be out here somewhere, they couldn't have even gotten that far.

But everywhere he looked, the looming presence of failure and hopelessness crawled deeper into his bones.

They were gone.

He jumped down onto the bench and sat with his legs open and bent at his waist to cradle his head in his hands. He wanted to curl up into a ball and cry but he knew that wouldn't fix anything. His brain rattled with thoughts in his head, trying desperately to think of a plan to supply a solution to his problem.

The image of his sister popped into his head.

_Of course!_  He pushed his hand into the tight pocket of his pants and took out his cellphone, hurriedly tapping at the icon of her face on his screen. He was going to keep his cool, he was going to calmly ask his sister for some help, and not make it seem like it was all his fault.

After a few unnerving rings-

" _Sota, I told you to stop calling me at work unless it's an emerge_ -"

"I lost the kids!" He sobbed into the phone. "It's all my fault-Sangoisgoingtokillme."

" _You did-_ _ **what**_ _?!"_

* * *

"Ayame," Koga said, a worried pitch to his tone, "I'm confused by the attitude."

The red-head twisted back to him, her pig-tails swaying in an angry exhibition, her frustration channeling out of every pore in her body.

"You called me an assistant again. In front of all those…all those…fanatic idiot  _girls_!"

"Oh come off it Ayame," Koga crossed a leg over his thick thigh as he sat high on the ledge of the table, across from the other wolf keeper. "I said sorry about that already."

"No you didn't!" Ayame said splaying her arms wide in exasperation. "This is the first time that you've even talked to me since calling me that, how would you have said sorry?!"

He scratched the back of his head in thought, "Well I thought I mentioned it."

"Your memory is priceless, it really is." She went back to cutting up the red meat for the wolves' last meal of the day. "You either  _don't_  remember things or you completely  _make up_  others."

"Now that's not true-"

"Oh yes it is," She turned pointing the sharp knife at him and Koga inched back in fear, "You completely forgot about our date last night."

"I didn't forget."

"Oh," Ayame's eyes grew stormy and he could almost  _feel_  the fire in her glare, "So you stood me up?"

"No!" He denied, realizing too late that he had caught himself in a trap. He wanted to come up with some type of excuse as to why it was that he forgot, but something about her pouty lips and angry demeanor had him blushing like a fool instead. Ayame was incredibly adorable in more ways than one and he was incapable of holding back those thoughts ever since she initially sauntered up to him on her first day in training.

She furrowed her nose and pursed her lips, "You're doing it again."

"What?"

"That annoying thing."

"Smiling?"

"Yes. That."

He couldn't help but boast out a laugh and it was near infectious as she dabbed her fingers in the nearby cleaning water and flicked it at his face with a giggle. He was about to retaliate with the hose but a crackling noise followed by a thick noise coming over his radio made him pause.

" _Code 19. I repeat. Code 19. This is not a drill."_

Koga's eyes grew distant, his muscles tensing.

Ayame gasped, moving back. "Code 18 is when an herbivore is out of containment…Code 19 is when…"

"It's a carnivore." Koga finished, jumping down from the table and tightened the pony-tail on the top of his head. "We've never had a code 19."

"Never?" Ayame whispered, fear slipping into her voice.

Koga brought a hand up to rub his chin while the other cradled his elbow, lost in thought.

"What are you thinking?" She put down the knife and grabbed a nearby rag to wipe her hands on.

He clipped his radio on his belt and started marching out of the room,, "I'm thinking it's time we put that Mutt's damn dogs to some good use."

* * *

Inuyasha rolled up to the dog-demon paddock at nearly eighty miles per hour, stepping on the brakes and throwing the keys back into the open car door as he jogged his way to where the nearest of his crew members were.

When the pair of workers noticed their dog-demon trainer they nervously turned to him for answers, "Inuyasha! There's a Code 19!"

"I know." He said. "Make sure the girls are in their cages for the remainder of the day until we get this thing sorted out. I don't want them out here. And you guys too, after you're all done with that, don't even pack your things, just take the next ferry out of this hellhole."

"What about you?"

"I'm going to ride this thing out with the girls." He answered. The men looked unsurprised, as if this was what they expected from him.

Suddenly two forms came running down the metal stairs, and the sound of rattling aluminum caught Inuyasha's attention. He saw Kagome skip the last two steps and race towards him, her pony-tail whipping against her back with Miroku on her trail.

"Inuyasha!" She called out and then skid to a stop in front of him, "I need you."

Miroku appeared behind her panting, "Nice to see you back so soon, Captain."

The half-demon quirked his brow at the girl, red-faced at what Kagome had last said, "Wha-what do you want?" He stuttered. The girl took note of the blood that was splattered against the side of Inuyasha's clothes but chose to ignore it for now. There were more important things at stake.

"I need your help," Kagome started, "My brother Sota, he was taking care of Sango's little brother and cousin at the park-"

" _Sango's_  little brother?" Inuyasha asked.

Miroku rubbed the back of his neck with a worried expression, "Yeah, she has one-about 16, I think. He and a little girl came to the park for the first time today and they're out there somewhere."

"What do you mean  _out_  there?"

Kagome wrung her wrists nervously, "After Sota called me, Miroku tapped into the security cameras and found them but it was too late, they had already boarded the gyrosphere. They're out on the field."

Inuyasha's whole face contorted into anger, "They're out on the field?! Didn't they shut down the attractions?"

"They did," Kagome answered, "After the Code 19. But they got on the gyrosphere right before the warning was issued and-Inuyasha please help me, those kids are out there with a demon on the loose. Sota is going after them himself if I can't do anything and I can't have my brother out there." Her lips trembled, not able to even stomach the idea, "I can't."

"Alright." Inuyasha decided, not really feeling he had a choice.

"I'm coming with you," Miroku stated, switching his hold on the rifle he held, from his left to his right shoulder.

"No you're not." Inuyasha corrected reaching over quickly to take the rifle from Miroku and loop it over himself. Before he could open his mouth to protest, the half-demon silenced him, "I need you here with the girls."

"That's  _Sango's_  little brother out there, Inuyasha, I can't just stay here-"

"I'll find him, he'll be safe with me. No one knows those jungles better than I do, I ,  _need. you_   _.here_."

Miroku shut his eyes for a moment, trying to regain his peace and sighed. He mulishly squared his shoulders and stormed off.

"Is he okay?" Kagome asked from the sidelines.

"He will be." Inuyasha glanced at the rifle on his shoulder-a Marlin Model, with a stainless finish and gray laminated wood stock, fitted with a scope for sniping. This would do. He began moving back to a small garage at the corner of the area and placed his palm on the nearby scanner to open it. The door folded up to reveal two thick rubber wheels attached to the body of a bright red motorcycle. Without looking he stretched an arm to unhook a set of keys from the nearby wall. He smirked at the bike and wordlessly greeted her, patting the mechanical face of the engine and hitching a leg over to saddle her.

He injected the key into the slot and reared the ignition into life. Whether dog or human lobes, the sound of his bike growling thunder, would always be music to his ears. He twisted the handles to test the gears one more time before taking off.

Right before he took his foot off the pedal and balanced himself to drive away, he felt a weight fall behind him and two small hands fit comfortably over his shoulders. He stilled.

"Shouldn't we wear helmets or something?"

He wiggled his shoulders to get her hands off him, "What the hell do you think you're doing, wench?"

"Wench?" Kagome questioned, offended. "What is this? The 1500s?"

"Get off!  _Wench_!" He repeated angrily.

"I'm not getting off! I'm going with you!" She crossed her arms petulantly behind him and he had a mind to rear up and dash away quickly, leaving her to fall flat on her ass in the dust.

"Fine, look I won't even hold onto you, there's some nice handles here that I can grab."

He cursed;  _I really have to uninstall those damn things_.

"There's a rampant monster on the loose somewhere out there, and you're just going to hold me back." He reasoned, turning back to look at her in the face with severity. "You're going to get us both killed."

"This is my brother's fault and I'm not the type of girl to push responsibilities onto other people. I'm going to help regardless of if I get eaten or not."

"Isn't your brother pushing his responsibility onto you?"

"Yes."

"And aren't you pushing that responsibility now onto me?"

"…yes."

"Then get off!"

"No!" Kagome's eyes looked frantic and Inuyasha saw the determination laced in their brown pools.

"Get off my bike, and get off this damn island."

"I will not! I'm useful, I can help you!"

Inuyasha resisted the urge to hit his head against the engine, "You are not useful in the  _least_."

"Stop bullying me."

"I haven't even started."

Kagome puffed out her cheeks in aggravation, "Listen, are you going to keep wasting time by arguing with me or are just going to go? Kids lives are at stake here."

"So are ours if you come with," Inuyasha replied but he was already kicking up the foot pedal that held the bike up, and firing the motor. Kagome bravely squeezed the sides of her feet closer to the body of the bike, planting them firmly on the pedals aside it. She squeaked when they rolled out of the garage at high speed and resisted the urge to hold onto the half-demon's shoulders again. She squinted as his white hair whipped at her face, and when she opened her eyes all she could see was passing blotches of green in-between strands of silver.

Some of it got in her mouth and she sputtered it out, the sound almost unrecognizable over the hum of the motor.

He drove the bike with one hand as they shot through the jungle, bumping along the intricate design of vines and roots, reaching up to fist his pony-tail and bring it under his armpit, to avoid it from being in her face. She mumbled a grateful, thank you.

Inuyasha glanced behind him warily, seeing Kagome uncomfortably bouncing, with her hands behind her to hold onto the handles at the back of the vehicle, the wind lashing at her cheeks. Mud was catching on the backend of the wheel and there were already splotches of the brown substance going up and down her toned arms.

A twinge of pity fell into his stomach and he scowled.

"Hold onto my shoulders, we're about to kick her into gear!" He shouted.

He wasn't even done with the sentence yet, when she encircled her arms around his neck and dug her face into his back to avoid any more sludge from spraying against her mouth.

The jungle smelled of moss and leaves and wood, but with Kagome lying so close against him, the scent of jasmine in her hair surrounded him in an undeniably comfortable embrace. He twisted the gear handles to hold true to his word and the motorcycle shot through the foliage at a considerably higher pace than before.

She meep'd against the material of his vest as they drove towards the open field.


	7. Gyrosphere of Influence

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kohaku and Rin get into some trouble.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I updated this on my FF.Net profile but I forgot to post it on here, so here it is. Sorry for the long wait. Hopefully everyone here also follows me on FF.Net, same username!

**Warning** : Character death. ( _Not any of the main ones, I promise._ )

* * *

* * *

Kohaku narrowed his eyes, trying to grab better focus of the barren environment that lay quietly in front of them. He itched at his right ear, and breathed in a sigh as he glanced over at his smaller cousin who seemed to be, for the most part, relieved by their lack of demon companionship. His lips stretched to the side in disappointment.

"Where are they?" He bit out.

Rin squirmed a bit in her seat and offered, "Maybe they're all asleep?"

The older boy sighed again and tucked his hat tighter around his head. His eyes jumped around the arena once more, trying in earnest to catch glimpse of something,  _anything_. After an additional minute of nothingness he leaned over his seat and tapped at the glowing screen near their knees. It continued to blink blue at them. He rubbed his forehead, confused.

The ball they sat in rolled onward.

"Maybe they're not feeling well-"

" _Hello there!"_

Kohaku and Rin turned to focus on the monitor between them as a short, graying old man poked at the screen from beyond the camera that recorded him. Their eyebrows rose in speculation.

" _My name's Myoga, and welcome to the Gyrsophere_!" The image of the chubby stout man flickered and then stabilized as he brought his fists to his hips, thrust his proud chest forward, and flashed a wide smile to the audience. He was donning a lengthy white lab coat and a balding head. " _You're behind this invisible shield made of palladium, one of the strongest known elements to man."_  He then mumbled to himself while rubbing his chin, " _Well mixed in with silicon, germanium and phosphorus."_

Rin cocked her head sideways while Kohaku just stared, nonplussed.

" _The shield will protect you and keep you safe, from demon venom, demon strength, and demon claws_." Rin's eyes were growing wider by the second and Kohaku nervously shifted his own from hers to the monitor. " _And this camera protects me from actually being there_!" Myoga chuckled, seemingly at his joke. " _Not that anything_ _ **would**_ _actually happen to me, being that I'd be very safe within the shield bubble."_  He then added while murmuring again to himself, " _Still won't ever catch me out there…"_  Rin's nails dug into the seat restraints.

Kohaku speculated who decided this would be a good script to pitch to kids.

" _Stay within your seats at all times and abide to the roads clearly marked by the built-in gps,"_  As he mentioned the navigator, Myoga dissolved into another panel showcasing a blue grid, where the rover they were in was clearly marked by a neon green glowing arrow, on a technological mapping system,  _"-and don't ever, not ever, never, never, never go-"_  Before he could finish, he was cut off by a fuzzy black and white screen and a flashing red sign with the Feudal World logo on it saying, " _Ride Closed, please revert back to boarding station_." Later repeated by a soothing woman's robotic voice over the speaker system near their ears. Kohaku hit his head against the back of the seat in frustration, and the nub of his ponytail hurt the bottom of his skull.

Rin rubbed her feet together anxiously, messing the strappings of her sandals, and then sighed as well. "Does that mean we have to get off?"

Kohaku didn't answer immediately, closing his eyes and breathing out heavily. Rin chewed on her cheek for a moment and then caught something from the corner of her eye and a gasp caught in her throat.

A demon rounded the corner.

It was beautiful, and the sheer size of the creature was astounding, but not intimidating, like Sesshomaru had been. Its size was more comfortable, she could easily wrap her mind around the idea of it, and the fur that glistened a muted brown in the sunlight danced through the bristles and made the demon look like it was shining. Its muzzle was flat and it propped itself up on its hind-legs, the muscles along its thighs- hard as concrete to keep the large demon up. Then its giant head inched forward to take a mouthful of leaves into its mouth and when it came crashing unceremoniously down onto the ground, the tremor vibrated through their bubble and across the land. Rin found herself putting a hand up to the glass in awe and a silly smile curled around her lips. It was eating leaves and at a certain angle it even looked cute;  _endearing_. The demon twisted around to deposit the rest of its food into a small awaiting mouth. The little girl gasped, realizing that there was a smaller version of the creature on the other side of it-  _but she couldn't see it_! She turned back around to face Kohaku, who was still lost in his cloud of disappointment, and reached for the doughnut shaped control in between them. She eased it forward and the ball continued to propel onto the trail. She finally got Kohaku's attention with this, although he merely gazed astonished at her hand on the control. She felt brave enough to continue and soon, they were on the other side of the demon, observing it feed her baby.

Rin sensed something warm blossom inside of her at the sight of the loving family exchange, mixed with a feeling of longing and somewhere at the root of it, envy. She sighed wistfully and put her head in her hands as she leaned against the ledge of her seat.

"You want to see more?"

Her cousin's voice brought her out of her stupor and she warily glanced at the screen that still blared, " _Ride Closed, please revert back to boarding station,"_ in bright red letters. But she couldn't help the desire to keep going and discovering other gentle demons. She nodded confidently before she could change her mind and the boy flashed her a conniving grin.

He took hold of the control and steered out into a more open plain, rising up a hill slowly. There were two giant poles that protruded from the top of the hill, reaching up vertically towards the sky, and as the duo passed between them, the screen automatically went from the bothersome message to the blue grid that they had familiarized themselves with earlier. The mapping system. There was a cluster of red dots ahead of them just over the hill according to the GPS and Kohaku inwardly cheered. Rin looked on in confusion, not fully understanding what it meant.

Just as they crested the hill and the sunlight blinded them by temporarily hitting the glass at just the right angle, Rin raised her arms up to shield her face and Kohaku squinted through the pain of the rays.

And then it was like they had stepped through a portal, falling back in time, 500 years ago.

A herd of giant demons dominated the lands, their tall necks, their long limbs, their glistening claws, in shades of green and blue and red and orange. Beady black eyes, large flaring nostrils, and long swishing tails greeted them, as they slid down the hill at a heart murmuring pace. There were about ten different species from what they could see, just at that perspective alone. And then the eleventh type rushed passed them like lightning, a bright shade of turquoise that sped down the steep decline while screeching and clicking in their animal tongue. They looked amphibious in nature but then from their hips upward, they looked mixed with some type of avian creature. Their mouths ended in sharp beaks and their arm-limbs were small and tight against their sides.

Rin couldn't hold back her train of gasps and Kohaku leaned so far forward in his seat that his nose pushed up against the glass, and then he had to sit back because his breath was fogging up the window making it hard to see.

It was miraculous, and gorgeous, and legendary, and mythical, in more ways than one. They got nearer and nearer until the herd of demons were walking alongside them, groaning at them in low baritone tones. They got so close that Rin could distinctly tell you what dirt in-between demon toenails looked like. She recoiled, choosing to look at something else, one of the demon's eyes that made slight contact with hers, its large black curious iris honing in on her small brown ones, trying to distinguish what she was and if she was a threat. After a second the demon whistled to the rest of the pack and they all moved north, presumably to another watering hole. Kohaku looked on in awe, unable to believe that he was really this close to the demons that he had sought for so long to see. He noticed the herd was moving further down the valley so he pushed the steering controller forward again, this time with more force, hoping that the ball they were in would copy the intended response. It surged faster than before, picking up speed as it spun into the middle of the group of demons and both riders laughed as the demons separated to allow them passage, like Moses splitting the red sea. Soon all the demons were running alongside them, trying to keep up with the inquisitive gyrosphere. The earth resounded with the noise of dozens of heavy feet pushing against the soil, and the almost silent electronic whirl of the ride.

Kohaku pulled himself away from the demons for a second to take a look at his younger cousin who was in complete awe, staring intently at the animals with a grin on her face. "So what do you think?" He said smugly.

Rin's smile didn't falter as she whirled back to reply to him, "I hope we don't really have to go back soon."

He shook his head, "Nah, we can stay out for a little bit longer." He pushed onward again, relishing in the sight of the demons passing him by. "No harm in it."

* * *

"This is a bad idea."

"Why would you say that?"

"Because it's a  _bad idea_!" Rin felt like yanking all the hairs out of her head in worry as they pulled out of the open field and through a narrow passage that probably should  _not_  have been there. It was one thing to stay on the route provided, and another to completely stray off the path. The vines attached to tall trees, wiped down the glass of their bubble and left slimy green residue on the surface. Rin scrunched her nose and rubbed her elbow, apprehension written all over her face. The fact that the passage was open because a gate was completely destroyed,  _probably not by anything human_ , was not lost on her like it was on him.

"Kohaku, we're going to get in trouble."

The older boy rolled his eyes with a sneaky smile and then shook his head in response, "No one is going to get in trouble. This is a behind the scenes adventure. I bet there are  _gentle, leaf-eating_ , demons that are just waiting patiently for us to find them." He purposely emphasized certain words to manipulate her into a mollified mood but she merely pursed her sharp pink lips in thought while gazing out into the unknown.

The almost silent twirl of the ride slowly faded out as the sounds of the jungle's orchestra muted out all unnatural mechanical noise. The singing of the birds, the buzzing of the insects, the music of the wind as it sifted through the tall strands of wild grass, all captured the innocent minds sitting within the gyrosphere. Kohaku peeled his dark brown eyes wide to search out anything remotely interesting, while Rin gazed in wonder at a blue-speckled butterfly the size of her face, as it landed carefully on the shield by her ear before fluttering away.

"Ha!" Kohaku exclaimed while pointing with an excited hand, "You see, I told you we'd find more demons!"

An incredibly adorable looking fox-kit demon slowly approached them, his furry paws silent against the dirt. He had a half-eaten berry in one of his front hands, and the remains of the seedy fruit plastered all over his round fluffy cheeks. He was very small, Rin noticed, smaller than any other demon she had seen besides the baby demons in the pen, and that's when she realized that he must have been one.

"He's a baby?"

Kohaku nodded, "Yeah, Mama and Papa fox shouldn't be too far away."

Rin wished she could reach out past the bubble shield and touch the creature, her fingers stopping just short of the glass. The fox cub looked at both of them and then cocked its head, confused by their funny looking forms.

The children inside the grysophere chuckled and mimicked his movements.

And right on queue a pair of giant fox demons appeared among the ferns, their snouts ending in large black noses, cautiously sniffing at the air in front of them in hopes of better understanding the gyrosphere and its intentions towards their infant. They made high-pitched whimper and calls for their cub, and Rin giggled once more. The female was slightly smaller than the male, but both were identical in markings; a large patch of dark crimson fur played against the cream color of their underbellies, ending in four massive black paws. Their numerous tails swayed in unison behind them, fluffy and appearing like fog.

Rin knew foxes in real life weren't vegetarians, she had learned in school about the food chain and that their diets revolved mostly around cute bunny rabbits, but she didn't allow herself to feel fear, for she was once again lost in an enchanting moment where the ethereal looking demons all stood in front of her, frozen and captured in this picture of peace and tranquility. She felt herself smiling and moved one of her fingers from side to side, seeing that the fox demon cub was following it comically.

Her laugh was near infectious and Kohaku chuckled and regarded the gps in front of them, showing four red glowing dots; three demons in front of them, and the fourth, judging from the map, was somewhere behind them, and closing in on them.  _Strange_ , he hadn't noticed anything rolling in.

"Looks like this fox kit might have a sibling or something." He tried to move to look behind him but the belts were constricting. He made a sound of annoyance through his teeth.

"How'd you know that?" Rin kept moving her finger from side to side until she finally realized that the kit wasn't following and instead was stock frozen, its eyes wide and wet, looking past her, behind them.

Kohaku could only process the fact that the fox parents were now screeching and he made to cover his ears before he caught the reflection of something in the glass incasing them.

A pair of massive black jaws with pearly white fangs, dripping with saliva and blood, was the last thing he saw through the image in the glass before his heart plummeted to the ground. Rin was screaming as they were rotated up towards the sky, their sense of balance and gravity-gone. The creature behind them was now in front of them, its eyes- _eight of them?!-_ blinked at them maddeningly, not in the curious way all the other demons were doing, but in a bloodthirsty, need to kill way, that made him feel exactly what it was like to for once in his life be the doomed prey.

It bellowed low and loud, and its overbearing monstrous demand was so overwhelming that it muted Rin's shrill shrieking. One giant limb moved forward and threw them towards the trees at the side, Kohaku's vision blurring. He hadn't seen where the demon was coming from or where it was going to go next but even in his panic he was wise enough to reach over and clasp a tight palm over the screaming girl's mouth to shut her off. And that's when he also realized that they were hanging upside down and the seat belts were finally finding some purpose.

Rin's frantic eyes made contact with his and he grew even more anxious at the sight of her wild glance, trying in vain to school his features despite his obvious terror. His skin felt like he was being boiled alive, every nerve shooting erratically and going numb at the same time- _what was happening?_

He found the courage to look ahead once more and could faintly make out the image of the tall atrocious creature hiss at the fox parents, whom had rushed forward to protect and buy their child more time, but Kohaku knew the cost would be a great one.

He wanted to find the fortitude to shield Rin's eyes, but there wasn't enough time and before he could protect his little cousin from the inevitable bloodshed, it lasted only a few seconds.

The male was first to lash out, maybe in a hopeless act of beast chivalry, and he was fast like lightening but the monster was faster and when he clamped his fangs over the male's head, the jaws piercing through his eyeballs and crushing his skull like a jaw-breaker, Rin squeaked in-between Kohaku's fingers and his own sob threatened to cut their vow of silence.

They both shut their eyes not wanting to know the fate of the female as she cried after her fallen mate. A cacophony of animal noises infiltrated the pair's ears in the gyrosphere. And then there was no more.

Kohaku looked up again to watch in dread as the monster's large muzzle rose from the carcass underneath it, nothing left of the female but the chilling slush sound of her flesh falling through his razor sharp teeth to the dirt.

It seemed as if for the moment the murderous demon was distracted and wouldn't be turning to pay attention to them, which Kohaku thanked whatever spiritual entity that intervened to make that happen. He realized sullenly that if not for the fox demons, they would probably be the ones rushing like dead strips of meat through the monster's teeth. He winced and slowly let his arm fall away from Rin, who had finally seemed to understand their predicament. She had to stay quiet, or else what happened to the fox parents would happen to them.

Kohaku was so overcome with worry and anxiety that he didn't give a second thought to the fox demon kit that had disappeared once the fighting started, but Rin had not so easily forgotten and she was both slowly and hysterically trying to locating him in the dense jungle from her upside down position.

The older boy held back a sigh of relief as the demon finally started to move away from them with quick pace.  _They would survive this encounter_ -

And then the phone that he had been using to ignore the consistent calls from Sota began ringing and the heartbreaking buzzing echoed throughout the whole bubble and spilled out into the wilderness around them.

The image of his sister flashed in neon lights, illuminating both their faces in an unearthly glow,  _she was finally calling him._

Kohaku desperately reached down to silence the machine but by the time the pad of his index finger narrowly pressed the touch screen, when he glanced back up in a hopeful daze to confirm that the demon was still moving  _away_  from them-those eight red eyes blinked back at him through the glass and he _knew_  that they were already dead.

Rin didn't scream when the demon threw its mouth open to bellow in thundering rage.

* * *

Kagome peered behind Inuyasha's shoulder as they began to finally slow down. The roar of the motor cycled down to a puttering sound and she didn't hesitate a moment's breath before leaping from her position behind him and rushing forward to look at the expanse of land in front of them, her boots jerking up mud.

"Hey!" Inuyasha called as he kicked down the little stand for the motorcycle and let it balance on the dirt before following after her. "This isn't gonna work if you're just gonna keep running off-"

He was cut off by her sharp gasp and found himself picking up his pace to meet up with her at the top of an overpass, joining her at the crest to look down at a valley of red torn up flesh.

His nose had lost the sensitivity that he was accustomed to, but even so, the stench of dead, rotting demons, still reached his nostrils and his lips twisted into an unhappy grimace.

"What…what  _happened_?" Kagome whispered, bringing a hand up to shield her nose and forced the tears back.

"That demon must have gotten here first."

"But…it didn't even eat anything." She jumped down the slope and made her way quickly towards the depression in the soil to inspect a fresh carcass. Inuyasha sighed and wiped a palm against his face in agitation.

"Look at this," Kagome gestured to the large reptilian animal in front of her, "This Iguana demon is just completely cut up, but there's no sign of chewing or missing limbs or organs. It-" She noticed something missing and quickly added, "- _she's_  just…been slain."

Inuyasha scratched the back of his head, realizing what she was referring to. "It's killing for sport."

"That's not even  _animalistic_." She moved back from her spot on her knees to rest her body weight on her heels, "What  _is_  this thing?" Kagome turned inquisitive eyes towards Inuyasha, her face transforming from confusion to suspicion. His hands came up in a defensive posture.

"I haven't a clue, but as you can see, it's probably the most dangerous thing on the island and those kids are still missing." He held out a hand to help her back up, and after a heart-beat of staring at the offered open hand, she took it and they both silently walked back to the motorcycle.

"There's no way they've made it this far yet, right?" Kagome asked with a optimistic look, "I mean we would have seen tracks or something from the ride?"

Inuyasha scanned the field once more and nodded, "Yeah there would have definitely been shards of glass or blood trails that we would have seen." Kagome winced and bit her lip.

"At least that means that they could still be safe-"

A deafening roar interrupted her and they both froze on the spot to watch in horror as a pocket of trees shuddered in the distance.

Inuyasha growled under his breath and without a moment's hesitation the rumble of his engine buzzed beneath them in the direction of their fears confirmed.

* * *

"Koga you can't just step on the property without-"

"I have more authorization than  _you_  do, bucket boy."

"Koga!" Ayame slapped at his shoulder, scandalized at hearing the wolf-demon trainer that she admired so much, refer to Miroku so rudely.

His lips came together in a stern mulish line and turned to look at her, "Woman, stay out of this."

"Like hell I will, this park is undergoing an evacuation right now and you want to toss insults and pick petty fights?"

"That evacuation is what I'm trying to help with, woman!"

"Now listen here you asshat, my name is A _ya_ -"

" _Ass_ hat?!"

"Maybe there's a better time for this?" Miroku interrupted, rubbing the back of his head and squaring his shoulders in preparation for an ugly argument with the stubborn black-haired hothead.

Koga pushed the leggy red-head behind him and was chest to chest to Miroku, "We can argue wherever we goddamn  _please_." Miroku's arms fell to cross over his ribcage and he narrowed his eyes at him.

Ayame rubbed her temples in aggravation while breathing out quietly, " _Lord."_

"What do you want, Koga?" Miroku finally asked, half filled with dread knowing the answer and the other genuinely amused. The wolf-demon trainer rarely ever visited the dog-demon paddock, and the last time he was even here it was to cause a ruckus about using the creatures as devices for search and rescue missions. All Inuyasha had heard was " _used_ " and his ill-tempered nostrils were already flared, one fist raised to strike while the other arm was being pulled back with all of Miroku's might. It wasn't the last they had heard of Koga's idea, the wolf-demon trainer had gone straight the CEO to voice his loud opinion. And Kikyo had later organized a conference with other park officials and management to discuss the possibility to executing such a challenging concept, but Inuyasha had shut them all down the second he had the chance to speak.

"You know what I want, those dogs needs to get the harnesses that Asset Control made them and hunt down this thing."

"Koga, the girls have never even  _worn_  the harnesses, and they're not trained well enough to be outside the pen without constraint,  _please_ , see reason my friend."

"I'm not your damn friend right now, I'm your coworker and we both have a duty to keeping this park safe!"

"Releasing more wild demons that have the capability to kill innocent civilians is not doing that." Miroku said calmly while taking a step back and fishing for a phone in his pocket, "And if you want, you can take it up with Kikyo, she's the one that would need to okay this train-wreck anyway." He pulled her contact up and challenged Koga by thrusting the phone at him, daring him to make the call.

The high-pony-tailed man growled low under his breath and snatched the cellphone from his hand, raising the speaker to his ear as the dial tone rung. Ayame uneasily shifted from side to side and gave Miroku an apologetic look. Had things not turned so south on them, around this time next weekend they would all be pooled around the park's underground bar, nursing some beers and swapping tales of their demons. Now they all looked like desperate enemies, ready to claw at each other's necks.

She was thankful Inuyasha wasn't here, or this might have turned into a real blood show. He was more protective over his dogs than Koga and she were about their wolves,  _combined_.

After a minute of ringing Koga tossed the phone back at Miroku with a glare, "She isn't picking up."

"Probably busy evacuating the park. As  _we_ should be."

"Koga, he's right." Ayame pulled at his sleeve, careful not to be too forceful else he'd act out again, "We need to make sure the wolves are in their dens and get as many people as we can to the center of the plaza."

"Great. Put all the meat readily available in the middle of the park. Sounds like a great idea."

Miroku pinched the bridge of his nose, "It's so that when the ferries come, everybody is filed out in an organized fashion, weren't you at any of the orientations?"

"I had better things to do." Koga sniffed.

"They were  _mandatory_."

"Listen Miroku," Koga shot a finger in his direction, "I was here when the park was nothing but an _idea,_ okay _?_ A blueprint. I was here when the asphalt floor was jungle and rock and I'll be here until it gets taken down, but not by a demon set loose by some idiot keeper. And I know a good idea when I see one-I'm not just making this up. Those dog demons could search this thing out and stop it in its tracks, and you know it."

The image of Inuyasha properly running his training course earlier that morning with the girls, the way he could start and stop them at his every command, burned brightly in Miroku's mind, but even he knew it wouldn't be enough. With one taste of freedom, Kaze would turn savage. She'd try to gain leadership and forget her training. All it took was one slip of the gate.

"I know them, Koga. I know these beasts and they're not trained puppies or dolphins, these things will kill, just like your wolves would."

"My wolves are born for the wild, they are genetically incapable of being domesticated, don't try to tell me that Inutrasha's dog demons are the same!" Right then the phone in Miroku's palm began ringing, and all eyes turned to focus on it. The letters blared the name " _Kikyo_ ," and they all exchanged knowing glances. Everybody sweats when the big boss calls, regardless of the fact that they had just tried reaching her earlier.

Miroku held it out to Koga once more, "Well go on tough guy, ask her for permission. See what she says."

Koga glared at him and crammed the phone up to his ear, making a fist with one hand and placing it on his hip, "Hello?" He started to pace in angry tight circles, "Uh-No yeah, this is Miroku's phone, but I was here at the dog demon paddock and-…yeah I heard about the evacuation, it goes off on all the radios-….Uh-No, the wolf demon paddock has not been completely-…Yes!  _Yes_ of course I went to that orientation, it was  _mandatory_  wasn't it? "

Miroku and Ayame shared a look.

"Of course, I was going to get to it right away, I just had something I wanted to run by you first-" Koga seemed to have been cut off again by loud squawking on the other side of the phone and covered his eyes with his free hand, suddenly overwhelmed and stressed. "…Yes, I completely understand the severity of the situation…Well no, I didn't realize your cousins were at the park- _wait a second_ , Kikyo I can see we're getting off tangent here and I completely respect you and stuff but can I please ask you a question?"

Koga scuffed at the ground with a boot and licked his lips, "Well as you know, the dog demons are capable of sniffing out a long range of things, and I was thinking we could use them to you know…find this thing and eliminate the danger to the park before it gets out of hand."

The other end of the line had started screeching and suddenly Koga pulled the phone some distance away from his ear and rubbed it, the loud chattering of Kikyo's rejection of the idea leaking out into the air around them. Miroku didn't hide his smirk.

"Okay then, I understand." Koga confirmed with a tight lip, later murmured that he would be heading back to the wolf demon paddock to complete the evacuation procedures, and then hung up the phone, gripping it as hard as he could without flat out breaking it in one hand, while the other curled back into a fist.

"Koga?" Ayame said quietly.

"Let's go, Ayame. This whole ship is sailing to hell, but we're not going to be on it when it does." He moved so quickly that his pony-tail slapped her flushed face and marched out of the paddock with heavy steps.

Before she chased after him, she flashed Miroku a reassuring smile, "Everything will be okay, won't it?"

He flashed one right back at her and replied with, "Of course."

* * *

Kagome was fearless, as she jumped off the bike when they had encountered shards of glass and debris all over the forest floor. She was valiant, as she ignored Inuyasha's hushed demand to stop at once and turn back. She was the very embodiment of courage, as she slipped down a decline in the ground and steadied herself on a large boulder covered in moss.

And Kagome held back a sob of despair when she finally almost collided with the broken image of the gyrosphere. The machine was in shambles, sparks of electricity were spitting out from the mangled and torn wires, adding to the hopeless cause. A lame blue-gray hat was half dug up under a handful of leaves and she bent down to pick it up in a dream-like haze.

" _Oh_ ," Kagome gasped, holding a hand up to her mouth and shutting her eyes, turning to run into a strong warm chest. "Inuyasha, we were too late," she said broken and lost into his leather-vested material. She felt her legs want to give out from under her as she leaned into his comforting touch and he encircled her then, also caught between shock and anguish.  _Had they really been too late? Were the brats dead?_

For a moment as Kagome supported herself onto him and he impulsively held her close in hope of chasing back her tears, she felt okay, she felt safe. Like there wasn't a rampaging demon that was swallowing up little children on the loose. But the moment evaporated as quick as it came and then, becoming more aware of herself, she pushed away gently and wiped under her nose as she tried in earnest to not let the tears fall.

Inuyasha set his shoulders back and wiggled his nose to try and get a better idea of what had transpired here, but the sense was long-gone and waned away with the oncoming of the new moon.

"Wait," He took a few steps closer to the shattered gryosphere and knelt down to the damp surface of the dirt, "There's footsteps."

Kagome joined him, although standing, and also took note of the small indents in the dirt that spoke of a getaway, paired with much larger soles. They  _both_  had somehow made it out of the hamster ball and maybe even-

"Alive? They're alive?" Kagome asked excitedly now, quickly following the fresh steps until they lead into an open clearing over a cliff that overlooked a waterfall, crashing loudly into the bottom basin.

Inuyasha couldn't help the smile that found its way on his face in relief, "Seems like it. They jumped."

Without another thought Kagome cupped her hands over her mouth and called out rather loudly, "Kohaku! Rin! Koha-! Mm _mph_!"

Inuyasha dragged her back into the shadow of the forest with one hand clamped tightly over her screaming lips, "Shh!  _We_  are alive, the  _kids_  are alive, but we  _won't_  be, if you keep screaming like that!" He seethed, finally taking his hand away from her mouth, the humidity causing a line of sweat to bead down his sideburns into the fine tanned column of his neck. Kagome shifted her eyes to it, and then back to the set of angry amber eyes that glared at her openly and she frowned.

"Well what are we expected to do to find them, then? Can you sniff them out or something? Aren't you a dog-demon of some sort?"

"I'm  _half_ dog-demon, not a straight up  _dog_!" Inuyahsa pouted back at her, "…but yes, on normal occasions I would be able to sniff them out."

"Then why not now?!"

"Because it's the new moon!"

"So? You lose your doggy boy powers or something?"

"Precisely!"

"Oh," Kagome mumbled and looked sheepish then, wringing her hands and trying to distract herself by looking at the ground, "I knew something weird went on during the new moon and you, after Miroku mentioned it, but I didn't think uh…I didn't know…"

"Something  _weird_?" Inuyasha repeated while starting to move back to the motorcycle with a huff, "What did you think?"

"Well, I thought you just had a weird dog-demon ritual or something, I don't know," Kagome threw her hands in the air in defeat, "None of this losing powers thing is in your file, so I just didn't even think of it!"

"What-you thought I like- _dance around a fire singing ancient demon songs_  or something?" He asked impishly, his mischievous eyes cutting into her emotions like golden knives.

Kagome felt her cheeks get hot as she mounted the seat behind him but her words didn't stammer when she said, "Something like that."

"And  _file_?" Inuyasha glanced back at her with an amused look on his face that caught her off guard. He revved up the engine once more and inwardly cursed for the loud echoing sound it blasted into the environment, "You studying up on me?"

She buried her face into his back and closed her eyes, "It was a job requirement!"

"Was it now?"

 _No,_  she thought to herself. Kagome hid her smile into the fabric covering his iron back muscles and muffled out a response, "Just start driving dog-boy."

But before they could peel away from their spot in the jungle, Kagome spotted something red in the shrubbery. And it was moving. And it was very,  _very_  small and fluffy. She could not ignore…

"Inuyasha, please wait!" The half-demon yelped as her fingers dug into his shoulders, using him as a balance to gracefully jump back off the bike and race towards whatever object she had gotten distracted by.

He wanted to holler back at her that they were wasting valuable time, but by the time he even found his voice again amidst the surprise of her distressed plea, she had appeared in front of him again, holding a small furry object.

_Demon._

"Kagome, put it down."

"Inuyasha, he's hurt!" Her heart beat aggressively inside her chest at the sound of her name falling from his lips in such a familiar matter, but she pushed it aside, "Please, we can't just leave him."

"He's not important right now, we don't even have room-"

"I brought my bag! It's in the glove compartment on the back of your bike-

"You just crammed things into my bike without telling me?!"

"Well I brought it, just in case for emergencies!" She shifted the light little body from both arms to just her left as she bust open the tiny excuse for a trunk on the two-wheeled vehicle, and took out the yellow shoulder bag. She recalled the hat she had found, hidden in the debris, and shoved it down to the bottom.

"Emergencies like perhaps,  _saving helpless animals_?" Inuyasha looked absolutely livid, cursing under his breath and gripping the handles of his bike tightly.

Kagome shot him a disapproving look, "No, like  _band-aids_ , and wraps, and sanitizing alcohol, and-"

"Just hurry up, stuff him in the bag and let's get out of here, we're losing daylight." He noticed the way she was struggling with doing everything all at once and reached out to snatch the vulnerable fox kit. He examined it closely and took note of the fact that all the blood on his fur didn't even belong to him. Inuyasha caught something shining red from the corner of his eye and when he cocked his head to the side, he saw whose blood it actually was. He cringed, thinking better of showing Kagome, and when she finally had the bag strapped to her back he deposited the small creature into it.

"Ready, now?"

She nodded once more, feeling comfortable enough to encircle her arms around his waist amongst all the other crazy things that had happened today, and they were gone in a plume of dirt.

* * *

"I can't believe we're alive." Kohaku cradled his pounding head in his arms as he put it in between his legs to regain his composure. When his fingers dug into his hair, he absentmindedly realized that he had lost his hat in the chaos. He winced, he really liked that hat. It had belonged to his father at some point. Then the reminder of what had happened to cause it being lost hit him like a tidal wave and he shuddered into the skin of his arms.

To say it was easy, would be a flat out lie.

They had been suspended in the air a couple times, trapped in the gyrosphere, as the damned creature continued to crash them into the earth over and over again, his massive mouth fastened tight around the ball, like it was nothing but a plastic toy. Kohaku thought quickly and realized their only chance at survival would be to unfasten their restraints and escape through the open hole beneath them that the monster had created in all its rampage. He reached towards Rin's seat-belts first, and mouthed to her that she had to drop. The look she had given him when she realized she would need to fall was outright savage, her brown eyes wide and fierce. She fell to the dirt like a small sack of potatoes, and rolled out from the opening, leaving only him alone in the machine, his teeth chattering together violently. For some reason, the faint voice of the cowardly little man named Myoga crawled across the depths of his mind, repeating what he had said when the ride first started,  _"The shield will protect you and keep you safe, from demon venom, demon strength, and demon claws_." So far, the only thing the shield might still hold true about was the venom, seeing as the other two could be ruled out. And then he had said, " _-won't ever catch me out there…"_ Maybe they should have taken a note out of Myoga's book after all.

When they had finally made it out, he pushed Rin forward and together they matched stride for stride, his long legs and her short slim ones, sprinting towards whatever direction was opposite of the one behind them. Now that he looked back on it, Kohaku realized that for a small girl, Rin could really buck it and  _run_.

But the demon wasn't outsmarted for long, instantly it was on their tail and when they had reached the waterfall, Kohaku's only buzzing thought was that they had to  _jump_. It was their only chance, their only shot at survival. They would meet a deadly consequence if they chose not to.

Rin hesitated, but the second the monster opened its foul mouth once more to swallow them, she grasped his hand and simultaneously they leapt for their lives. There was no going back.

By the time they resurfaced, the demon was gone.

Kohaku shook his head in shock, "I just really can't believe it." When he finally looked at Rin for the first time since they had taken the jump off the cliff, he saw she was sitting on the ground, rocking back and forth slowly. "Hey," he said quietly moving to pat her head softly, "It's okay. We made it. We jumped and we survived and the monster is gone."

"Is it really gone?"

Kohaku narrowed his eyes and looked back in the dense foliage of the wilderness that lay ahead of them, "Yes."

"Are we safe?"

_No._

"Yes."

"What do we do now?" She picked up a lame wooden stick near her and started digging grooves into the soil.

They were both muddy from head to toe, looking like a pair of homeless people lost in the forest. And if anyone had called them that, they wouldn't have been completely wrong. They were definitely lost.

"I know exactly where we are," Kohaku started, offering a hand out to the little girl with grimy fingers, "We'll get back in no time, just stick with me."

"Okay."

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Sorry for the long update. I got so distracted by other projects and work, but now I don't have school so no more excuses! Hope you liked this update, I tried to polish it best I could but ultimately I'm sure I still made some mistakes. If you catch any, please let me know! And feedback rocks! Sorry for killing Shippo's parents the way I did, this is based of a movie/book series that deals with a lot of horror and carnage and I tried to keep it a minimum. Come hang out with me at sankontesu . tumblr. com if you have any other questions, or just simply want to know more. I appreciate you!


	8. Fits and Jumpstarts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's a long way down to salvation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow! What's up Fam?! 7k words, enjoy. I don't have a beta reader, keep that in minddd.

**7**

**Fits and Jumpstarts**

* * *

Rin stepped in something that to the ignorant eye would have been described simply as uncovered forest ground. But then her whole leg started sinking down into the floor, and it was probably somewhere after it had swallowed up her sandal entirely that she decided it was time to make her cousin aware of things as they were occurring.

"Umm…" She tried to yank free but it seemed the harder she struggled, the deeper her foot lost itself. "Kohaku!"

The older boy twirled back, his sweaty hair sticking to his neck. His eyes went wide when he summarized that she had stepped into some well disguised quicksand.

"Don't move," he instructed, coming closer, walking around her and then placed one hand on her slowly disappearing ankle, and looped an arm around her waist. He anchored himself with spread legs around where it was obvious that the ground wasn't moving.

"On the count of three I'm going to pull you out, don't try jumping or anything, I think you might push yourself down further, so just relax, got it?"

She nodded and Kohaku began to count, his voice a low whisper in an attempt to not draw attention to anything lurking in the jungle.

"1…2...3!" And he heaved, her body becoming dead weight in his arms as she followed instruction. The quicksand gave way and the force of the pull jerked them backwards. Rin's foot came free, and she threw it as far up into the air as possible to avoid sticking itself back into the curdled sand. Her slight weight tipped him over and they both yelped as they fell to the ground.

Rin rolled off of him, and when she dropped her eyes down to her right bare foot, her face fell into a sulking frown. She _liked_ those sandals. Coming to the conclusion that it would be uncomfortable to walk while missing half of her footwear, she undid the left one to leave it behind.

Kohaku brushed dirt off the back of his head and hesitated a hand over the top of his hair, kind of missing his hat.

"Come on," he moved forward again, stopping only to gesture for Rin to follow directly behind him. Where once she had let herself be led by holding onto him, she found it difficult to scrounge out enough fear to do so now. In light of past events, she was still decently traumatized. And in spite of all her terrors coming to life within the past hour, she felt a numbing sensation replace almost all the dread that tasted like metal at the base of her tongue.

Yet she still wondered, "You think it'll come back?"

Kohaku stilled at her words and she collided with his lower back, "No…No I don't think so."

But he didn't really even believe it himself. All he knew for sure was that they needed to find some way to get back to the plaza, back to a ferry, and back to their respected homes- because there was no way on heaven or earth they could possibly stay a day longer on this nightmare island. The more time they spent walking around, the higher their chances of running into the demon from hell again. He felt his mouth fill with saliva, a rising desire to vomit overcoming him. He locked his jaw.

Rin watched Kohaku lead further away from her and she took a second to glance behind her. She regarded the cavernous opening of the jungle, the intricate designs of the trees graphing lines and patterns that further hid anything that wanted to remain unseen.

Then the forest around them began to screech with the chatter of unseen creatures, drawing closer by the second, and all the numbness inside of her evaporated, a hole inside of her filling with horror.

Kohaku reacted swiftly- he tugged at her hand and they ran for their lives.

* * *

When him and Rin finally came to a stop, it was only because he had seen the markings of a man-made structure, but upon further inspection, he realized it was uninhibited and probably empty.

"What is this?" Rin peered forward, letting go of her cousin's hand and bravely touching the concrete pillar in front of them.

"It must be an old building from when they first opened the park." Kohaku rubbed the back of his head in thought and then looked behind him to make sure they weren't being followed by anything. "Really long time ago."

"The first time?" Rin chewed on her cheek and then flashed him a confused look, "I thought the park just opened for the first time a few years ago."

"No," Kohaku shook his head, "This is the second."

"What happened to the first?"

Kohaku swallowed anxiously and looked away, "The demons got loose."

Rin hugged her shoulder and stayed quiet after that. She moved deeper into the building, and past the double doors with spider webs hanging at the corners.

"Hey Rin- wait," Kohaku frowned and followed _her_ for once, coughing once he stepped through the entryway when his lungs were overcome with dust. "We shouldn't be in here."

"Why not? All the people are gone."

"There could be…things, hiding in here."

"I don't think so," Rin shrugged flippantly and walked quietly on barefeet, deeper into the shadows. Unafraid.

"What makes you so sure?" He questioned while softly closing the doors behind them.

"They would have jumped up and eaten us by now."

The little girl sounded so certain of herself and resigned to this one truth that Kohaku felt goosebumps lace up his arms. He almost tripped over a stray wire and fell sideways onto a framework of buttons, "Whoa!"

Rin jumped back and then a giant monitor lit up next to them. A glowing black screen with a single word in green blinking at them repeatedly followed by a set of dots.

"Inu…yasha?" Kohaku spoke slowly, stretching out the words that sounded familiar somehow. A friend of his sister's, and also a survivor of the first park, but why would his name be on this computer...clearly aged a few decades?

He eyed a mouse from a small flat surface on the table and moved it around, trying to see if there was anything else he could manipulate on the screen- but it stayed frozen.

Kohaku grumbled and moved for the keys, determined to change the image on the monitor in some way or another. He floated his fingers over the board and then smiled when he found the word he was looking for.

_Enter_

And the computer screen bounced back to life, throwing the darkness into a light so bright that both children had to shut their eyes against the unyielding glow.

After a moment, their visions settled and Rin cocked her head at the image in front of them. "Is that…Lord Sesshomaru?"

Kohaku learned forward and cruised his mouse cursor over the file with the document that held a thumbnail of the large white dog demon and clicked.

A video sprang to life, and a woman with straight black hair and large violet irises behind owlish purple eye-glasses peered back at them from the screen. She looked happy and thin.

" _My name is Izayoi Takashi, and this is Laboratory Inu-Yokai."' She turned the camera to face a massive container with a large white dog being held down by electrified restraints, "This is Sesshomaru, our first successful trial at Feudal Park. His DNA was cultivated from the remains of a fossilized Giga Dog Demon bone, and he is a perfect specimen- we are still gathering information, but we foresee him growing to be at least twenty-feet high." She giggled from behind the lens, "The marketing team is going to call him Lord Sesshomaru to fit the feudal theme of the park." The camera turned back to face her, looking at the creature in awe and fascination, "With this comes the next step." She paused dramatically. "Hybrid experimentation."_

The video froze, signifying the end of its sequence and Kohaku moved almost in a trance-like state back to the folder to click on another video feed. Beside him, Rin said nothing. She watched the screen silently.

The same woman popped up, although this time she had dark bags under her eyes and she looked tired and frail.

" _It's day fifty-six and there are still no signs of improvement from the experiment Inu-Yasha. It's lungs still struggle to intake oxygen, and it is being aided through the use of a manual pump. It is growing at a slow and steady rate, probably…" She stopped and shook her head, looking away disappointedly, "Probably at the normal rate of a human infant. It has exhibited **no** signs of its demon implantation, despite its genetic strain being a perfect clone of Sesshomaru's, and the only indication we can tell that its even half-demon, are still only the ears and claws. We will continue to monitor, but unless we receive further funding, we would have to label this subject as a failure and destroy it."_

The next video started as if on a playlist, and the same Izayoi smiled at them from the screen, although this time she looked less pale and more pink. Her lips were red and her cheeks looked healthy.

" _It is day four-hundred-twenty-one and Inuyasha is walking." She grinned tenderly and stayed quiet for a while, her line of sight following something beyond the camera. A young child's babble can be heard in the background. "He is very strong, he can open doors, and knock over computers." She shakes her head, although this time it is almost in an endearing way. "He will never be at the potential of his older twin but the company has decided to allow me to continue monitoring him as official Feudal Park property. We will be doing a soft opening of the park tomorrow, and as long as everything goes as planned, we will finally be able to show the world our research." She sighed and closed her eyes, then reached up to take off her glasses. "All our hard work will finally pay off." The sound of something crashing in the distance jarred her from her train of thought, "Inuyasha!" The woman perked her lips in a lop-sided smile. She waved goodbye and shut off the camera._

After a beat of silence, Kohaku stepped away from the computer and let the information sink in. The woman in the video was referencing Feudal Park, not Feudal World- meaning it was just a few hours before the failed first opening.

Kohaku cleared his throat and recalled the reports from that year. Almost everybody had died, and there were only six survivors. He had read the aged and dog-eared news clippings over and over again under the shadow of his comforters, waiting for his parents to tell him goodnight. He had also memorized the names of the survivors, and although Inuyasha was one of them…Izayoi was not.

He stared at a pair of purple glasses covered in dust at the top of the keyboard.

"Kohaku?"

Rin's voice jolted him and he spun back to face her. They still had to find a way to safety. He still had a responsibility to this little girl and getting them back home. Pocketing the purple eye-wear, he then scanned the room they were in for any signs of a telephone. If the computers were still working, who's to say the phone-lines weren't?

"Rin, try to look for some type of phone…" He trailed off when he saw a spot of sunlight at the other end of the room. He stalled for a second and then walked towards it.

"A phone?" Rin sighed and then shrugged, deciding it was better than standing around lamely and doing nothing.

Kohaku stumbled into an attached garage cell, noting that the spear of sunlight was piercing in from a crack in the garage door.

And sitting inside of the room were two very old, but probably fully functional, jeeps.

* * *

The whine of the motorcycle zipped through the foliage, kicking up leaves and dirt. Kagome felt her clamped hands get sweaty from holding onto her arms in an effort to keep a hold on the driver, encircling his waist tightly.

"I think I got a trail." He turned his head and caught sight of Kagome squinting through the glass shield of her helmet. "Two pair of pre-pubescent feet at 2'oclock."

Not wanting to open her mouth in fear of swallowing a tropical insect, she squeezed him tighter and gave a thumbs up to show her support.

Then he made a sudden tight turn that had her opening her mouth anyway as she shrieked.

Had Kagome been looking, she would have seen the sly grin that snaked itself onto Inuyasha's lips, but as it was, she was too preoccupied with muffling her cries into his vest.

Kagome promptly shut her mouth again, too afraid to check if she had caught anything and swallowed carefully- ignoring the feel of something wiggly slide down her throat. She watched idly as they rushed past a series of colossal trees and blossoming flora, most the size of her head. They passed through the small natural alleys of the jungle, twisting and threading through the ancient world lined with wide open canvases of birds and critters that would stare back at her with eyes just as confused as hers. Cascading gardens of wonder glittered under the dying sun and it was so breathtaking and beautiful that Kagome knew: hadn't they been on borrowed time- and in a hurry to save two helpless lives- she'd demand they stop just for her to take it all in.

Alas, they had the two kids to worry about, her brother's career, an infant fox demon unconscious in her bag, and an infantile tempered trainer responsible for somehow getting them all back to safety.

"Wait!" Kagome yelled, excitedly pointing at something in the distance and almost completely unbalancing herself. In an effort to stay anchored to the vehicle, she grabbed a hold of her driver's neck and shrieked when she felt herself falling. Inuyasha flung out an exasperated curse word and angled his bike so that she'd be able to better situate herself, later coming to a complete stop.

" _What_ the fuc-!"

"Look!" Kagome interrupted, put her helmet down, and jumped from the motorcycle to run over towards a bright neon object in the distance. "It's a little girl's sandal! It has to be Rin's."

Inuyasha looked about ten shades of 'done', his mouth pressing in a disapproving frown, "You almost killed both of us for a san-"

"Oh don't start." She dismissed him with a finger. "This can only mean they're close by!"

"I had already told you that much, I saw their footprints-"

"What direction did you think they were heading? You were about to keep going straight, and we would have completely missed the sandal." She gestured with her arm, "They're heading east. They're going this way."

Inuyasha grumbled and readjusted the belt on his pants, trudging petulantly to where she was holding the sandal and then glared at the direction her hand was pointing. It was true, the footsteps he had been following disappeared, and he would have completely missed the fact that the trail had veered suddenly to the right. Their gait had gone from slow- almost lazy- walking, to a full on sprint.

His eyes narrowed. What had made them run?

From the corner of his eye he caught a fast moving ball of orange, disappearing over a dense pack of bushes. "Oh, great."

"What's wrong?"

He gave her a deadpanned look, holding back the urge to list the many things wrong at that very moment. "The thing you saved- it's gone and done a runner on us."

"What?!" Kagome high-kicked it to the back of the muddied vehicle and gasped worriedly when she checked the empty contents of the bag. "Inuyasha, where did it go!?"

Suddenly a cacophony of strange animal noises answered her- angry and high-pitched- followed by a nearby string of cries.

Inuyasha hadn't the chance to blink before the messy-haired pony-tail of Kagome's was disappearing into a mass of foliage. "Damnit."

* * *

Kagome reappeared into a clearing and was finally able to put eyes on the loud chittering from before. They were tiny and green and lizard like, almost like iguanas but standing on their hind legs, with red snouts and their faces were framed with a set of spiky scales- like a beard.

 _Pogona_ demons, she accessed quickly, tentatively taking a step back and then being propelled forward when something sharp nipped at her ankle. "Ouch!"

"Kagome?" She heard Inuyasha crashing through into the clearing.

"I'm over here!"

"Are you okay?" He watched his assistant look around wildly as she was being surrounded by chicken-sized green skinned demons. "Shit." This was probably whatever had made the missing kids high-tail it off the trail. _Well that's a relief_ , he thought to himself. Better it be these harmless things than something bigger.

"I'm fine!" Kagome arched an eyebrow in confusion at the half-demon's sign of concern, but then brushed it off and cupped her hands over her mouth, "Do you see him?"

"See what?" He folded his ears back in aggravation.

"The fox!" She replied quickly, scanning the glade for any sign of him, missing the fact that the short animals were fast approaching her with hungry and curious gazes. Then she saw him, a fluffy thing, cowering and backed up under a tree, just as equally as surrounded by the tiny scavengers as she.

She took a leap over the circle of green tails that followed her movement and raced with purpose towards the infant fox. "Found him!"

Inuyasha grimaced and jogged over to her, hurtling into the middle of the prong of lizard demons and watched in annoyance as a couple tried to jump and snap at Kagome's ears. He reached her just in time and swatted them to the ground, although one of them had managed to snag his teeth on his hand as he tumbled down. Inuyasha sucked his teeth as the group that had been eyeing Kagome and the fox, turned their aggressions towards him and jumped all over, snapping their small sharp teeth at his skin. He howled as one ripped at his ear. "Fuck!"

Kagome scooped up the trembling fox and turned to watch in surprise as Inuyasha tried to rid himself of the pogonas, realizing then that if not for him, the same teeth would have probably been turned on her. He glanced at her annoyed, and then yelled while flinging his arms wildly, but they just kept jumping on him, their chattering growing louder with their confidence.

Kagome reached for a long stick with one free hand and heaved it up, running forward with an outraged cry, and batted at them with force, "Get off of him!" Inuyasha stared at her in surprise for a second.

The creatures hopped onto the ground and scampered away, seemingly disinterested in the fight now that it seemed unwinnable.

Like a gliding brood of emerald birds, they disappeared, and then it was just the three of them in the clearing, panting and out of breath. Kagome noticed the way Inuyasha's face dropped into a glower and hugged the fox tighter to her chest- whom squeaked his disapproval. She watched as a rivulet of blood rolled down Inuyasha's temple.

"That's enough," he said. "Get on the damn bike. We're getting out of here."

* * *

Inuyasha stood in front of the towering building, draped in aged moss and vines. He knew this slab of concrete, although he didn't know _how_ he knew. All that he could decipher was that a bitter taste of nostalgia pulled at his weak senses like a string around his heart, and he couldn't piece together why.

Kagome had gone around the side of the structure, looking for any sign of the brats, leaving him alone. Inuyasha wanted to say he was happy to see her go, seeing as the past few hours they had been nothing if not attached at the hip, but then he knew he'd probably be being dishonest with himself.

He enjoyed her boundless enthusiasm, and her desire to hold onto as much information as possible. She was a different change of pace- that much was for certain.

But she was a woman that focused on the process of things, while he was a man that thrived on the details. She reacted strictly on impulse, without mind to the consequences. And that was dangerous.

He let his mind wander to the hybrid demon that had attacked him earlier today. Inuyasha thought about it whenever he had a second to himself, unable to trash it from his mind, turning it over and over again, reliving the events.

Because there was something troubling him about the whole scenario, some impression that he could not get right.

The demon had attacked quickly, and Inuyasha had sensed it was a basic quadruped- hind legs, whip like tail, large skull, and the usual- but in the brief flash in which he had seen the creature, there seemed to be a peculiarity around its eyes and snout, which made him think of…his girls? And in addition, the skin was extremely unusual- it seemed to be a sort of dark mottled black, but there was something about it…

Inuyasha shrugged. The troubling idea hung in the back of his mind, but he couldn't reach around to it to place it. He just couldn't.

"Inuyasha!" Kagome called for him in a commanding tone from a distance.

"What is it?"

"Come over here."

He sighed and trudged to where she was crouched inside an abandoned garage. She was patching up the fox demon who seemed to no longer be in a hurry to run away. "Keh, figured who your friends are, have you?"

It hissed at him and scooted closer to the woman tending to him.

Kagome ran her fingers over his orange fur soothingly and hummed, "His name is Shippo."

"Shippo?" Inuyasha repeated with a scowl.

She then glanced back at the half-demon with a serious face, "Inuyasha look at the jeep."

"What about it?" He wandered closer to it and set his focus on the fact it was missing a battery and had two flat tires. "It's useless."

"Yeah, _now_ it is, but the foot-trail ran the kids here right? And look, aren't those tire tracks?"

He nodded and lifted an arm while supporting the opposite elbow to rub his chin pensively. He crouched down to inspect the aforementioned tracks and touched the wet mud by his boot, "They're fresh, too."

"So what do you think?"

"Probably the same thing you are, they somehow jumpstarted one of the cars in here with the unused battery of this old one." He jutted a thumb behind him.

"Yeah, well, I originally thought that, but aren't they just…kids?" Kagome rubbed her temple and curled her finger around the cotton-candy texture of the fox demon's tail, her thoughts waging- unconvinced.

A shadow of a smirk ghosted over Inuyasha's lips as he thought back to Sango, "The kid's sister is a top class with mechanics. I wouldn't be surprised if her brother picked up the trade too."

Kagome registered the fondness in his tone when talking of the stranger and her stomach cramped uneasily, "Someone you know closely?"

"Sango?" The smirk had grown into a grin now, an _admiring_ one, and the woman wasn't sure why, but she suddenly pulled sharply at Shippo's tail and he drew away from her resentfully. She looked at him apologetically.

"Yeah Sango and I go way back. She was a really young thing when she first started here, but she has more guts than any male or female I have ever met. She moved up quickly and now she's the ring-leader of the whole security team on the island."

"Where is she now?"

"No fucking clue. She disappeared just before this shit hit the fan." He heaved out a breath and gazed at where the tire tracks in front of him led. To the nearest gate post at the west end of the perimeter. They were heading to safety, and would probably meet up with the park's security team before Kagome and he even found them. "Probably had something to do with that damned idiot proposing to her out of nowhere," he finished.

"What?"

"Miroku," he clarified. "He's head over heels in love with her. I think she likes him too, but he's moving way too fast."

For some bizarre reason that Kagome could not identify, she felt like a balloon had been deflated in her chest at the idea that Inuyasha was not talking about Sango in a romantic way. They were co-workers. Maybe friends? She shook her head, unhappy with herself and moved the fox demon so that she could make room for her next patient.

She patted the empty seat and looked at Inuyasha with earnest. "Take a seat."

"What? Why?"

"The kids are fine right? They're on their way back to the aviary?"

"Yeah but how did you know-"

"I've been studying the map of this island for months, and I _can't_ pin-point exactly where we are, but I know we're due a few miles west from the aviary- it's one of my favorite exhibits."

"Yeah they're probably fine but-"

"Just sit down," she sighed and smiled despite herself. He took a seat and once he realized what she was reaching for, he groaned. "Listen, this is unnecessary-"

"Shush," she snapped open a box near her legs and began to work

"It hardly broke the skin." Inuyasha said irritably. He was sweating in the stifling heat beneath the abandoned roof of the garage. "I'm telling you, it's fine."

She curled her finger in a come-hither motion and he held out his hand. There was a red semicircle where the small demon had pressed its teeth into the skin, and a minor bead of blood forming at the ends, but that was all.

Beside him, Kagome ignored his protests, "Yeah, well, your ear is bleeding just _fine_ too."

The mentioned ear twitched at attention and Inuyasha rose a hand absentmindedly to touch it. They'd be gone soon. Wouldn't be long now…

"I don't feel anything so it can't be that bad."

"No, it's not bad." Kagome agreed, opening the first aid-kit that she had stuffed into his motorcycle's compartment before. "But I better clean it up."

"I'd rather," Inuyasha said slowly, blinking his long dark eye-lashes at her in a stubborn glare, "If you didn't, and we got back to looking for the brats." Naraku was still ever-present on his mind, he was quickly losing all his hyper awareness, and he could literally be anywhere.

"Listen you said it yourself, they're safe, and this won't take any time." She soaked some gauze in disinfectant, "Besides, it might not be hurting now, but those lizards could have put their teeth on anything before biting you, so it is definitely better we try to clean it off now before it turns into a bigger problem. This might sting a little…"

"I'll heal in the morning, there's no point- _ow_!"

"Hold still," Kagome admonished, reaching her hands to slowly wrap some gauze around his ear, "It'll only take a second."

"This is so stupid."

"Well if you'd just stop moving, it'd be done sooner. There." Kagome took the gauze pad away and as she turned to drop it into her waste bag, Inuyasha caught sight of something brown and a heavy streak of red. He had assumed the injury was trivial, but realizing now that he was bleeding a lot more than he had thought, he should have been thanking her. He reached up again to gently touch her patchwork and frowned- it didn't hurt at all.

She lifted a rag to brush at the side of his face underneath the maimed ear and focused all her attention on taking the blood off.

"You don't hafta do that…" He mumbled, wrapping his hand around her wrist to still her. The intention was to pull her away from him, but once he touched her, all of his impulses instructed him to freeze. There was a pregnant pause between them, looking at each other in the light of a sundown over the jungle's horizon, and mixed with the confusion that swam across their faces like reflections in a mirror, was a growing fondness that neither could deny.

"Hey," he gulped and set his sight on the way her chest rose with every small intake of breath, "About earlier, when the runt ran away…"

Kagome recalled the events and bit her lip in embarrassment, "Yeah I'm sorry, I shouldn't have-"

"No, I mean," he grappled for his wording and had completely forgotten that he was still holding onto her, "I-uh…ah…Thanks."

"Huh?"

He looked away with a color on his cheeks and decided he wanted to move as far from her as possible. When the warm skin on skin contact reminded him he was still encircling her hand, his whole neck burnt up. "Helping me out. That was smart what you did."

"With the stick?" She blinked in shock.

"Yeah, with the stick, stupid, what else-"

Then the ground shook with a force so great that Inuyasha didn't even have time to register the sound before he watched Kagome's face turn pale.

Then they heard it clearly- a low rumbling growl, almost a purr. It was coming from beyond the foliage behind them. It sounded like the biggest jungle cat they had ever heard. And intermittently, they felt the vibration run up their legs, and cause the keys at Inuyasha's side to clink together ominously. A shadow moved in the ferns, something twenty-five feet high, with a massive head. Inuyasha's heart pounded in his chest.

It finally dawned on him that it was Naraku: and it was walking.

And it was walking _straight towards them._

Beside him, Kagome was staring forward with her jaw open in astonishment, waiting for whatever was hiding in the wilderness to make its appearance. Shippo's nose trembled with familiarity and then his eyes glazed over in tears, his lips moving soundlessly as if he was trying to scream.

Inuyasha moved fluidly, slapping a large hand over the fox kit and yanking both of them into the shadow of the garage to hide behind the jeep in silence.

* * *

Miroku glanced around warily at the groups of bodies that ran around the exhibit, trying to gather their bearings for the evacuation, and thought of what his next move should be.

He turned his eyes to the captivity and watched as Chi grew agitated and restless focusing on the flurry of movement. She pawed back and forth, her gaze never leaving the cluster of bodies.

The girls were closely aware of an array of human emotion and could read into things easily. But Chi was probably the best at it, and was probably tapping into the panic and anxiety in the air.

He whistled lowly and sauntered over to her, looking her in the eyes as a sign of respect.

"Hey girl," he said smoothly.

She turned her giant white head at him and rested her haunches down calmly.

"It's going to be alright. You're going to be fine." He gestured around him with a swirling finger, "These people are just dramatic. Crazy."

Her large eyes narrowed at him in disagreement, judging him as if he were the crazed one.

He sighed and opened his mouth to engage in a one-sided conversation, but then his company cellphone buzzed to life.

"Miroku!" He chirped in greeting.

"What are you still doing on park grounds?" The voice clipped through, none too pleased.

"Kikyo," Miroku moved away from the bars of the dog's containment and tried to look for somewhere quieter he could take the call. "A captain is the last to abandon his ship, you know that."

She breathed a frustrated sigh, "Miroku, leave. Now. Take Inuyasha with you, I'm sure that idiot is also still hanging around. Probably planning on bunkering with the dogs."

The trainer nodded with an impressed look, "Right on the money, Kikyo dear. But unfortunately, our Sora isn't here at the moment…"

"Where is he?" She asked quizzically, then almost as an afterthought- "Sora? What?"

"He's with your cousin."

He could almost hear her rolling her eyes on the other side of the line, "Of course he is. Are they at least on their way off the island?"

Miroku weighed his options and took a pause. "They're looking for Sango's little brother and his cousin."

"He's…They're what?"

"Two kids got lost out in the tropics and Kagome enlisted Inuyasha's help to find them."

"Miroku," she said deliberately, "Inuyasha took my cousin out into the field? With a massive carnivore on the loose?"

He took the phone and gently tapped his temple with it twice in aggravation, returned to the speaker and said, "Precisely."

There was a stretch of silence in where Miroku could hardly hear Kikyo breathe, and then after what seemed to be a life-time, she spoke.

"Is Koga still there?"

Miroku furrowed his brows in confusion, then scanned the open area for the perfect bob of a dark-haired pony-tail, "He might be."

"Put him on the phone."

* * *

Naraku neared at a blood-chilling pace. Soon enough he was so close that the stench of the rotting flesh stuck in between his fangs leaked into the small space of the garage.

Shippo was trembling so bad that when Kagome curled around him to keep him from making any noise, she began shaking too.

Inuyasha protectively put an arm out in front of them both, keeping them anchored to the back of the jeep. They felt the ground quiver beneath their feet.

Inuyasha was betting on the fact that garage was too short for the giant creature to even think about fitting in, and he almost assumed that was going to be the case when the floor stopped vibrating. As if the animal was calculating its next move, and realizing it wouldn't be able to reach whatever was hiding inside the crevice of the building.

But his hopes were dashed the second a loud grating sound invaded their ears. Narkau was pushing his snout all the way towards the end of the garage, his mouth causing all the components on the shelves to drop violently to the floor. The odor of spilled oil released out into the open air.

Kagome looked feverishly at Inuyasha, almost as if imploring him to come up with a solution. It had then occurred to him that she had probably never seen the hybrid demon currently stalking them, and that she had no idea what they were up against. He almost envied her.

Then he watched as a ceiling lamp became unlatched and without a second thought he moved to cover her with his whole body, wincing when the glass crashed on his neck and back. He braced both hands on the bumper of the jeep and looked down at the frightened girl. He swallowed a groan and flashed her a reassuring smirk.

But she didn't buy it, and before they could even fathom relief, the demon let out an ear-splitting roar, knocking the jeep over on its side, completely uncovering the trio.

Inuyasha felt as if time crawled by lazily- everything happening in some go-stop motion that gave him a chance to make a quick trigger decision. Naraku extended his neck, preparing to attack.

Flinging the rifle that had been resting on his back to the length of his left arm, Inuyasha aimed for the exposed gas tank underneath the jeep, and just before Naraku's jaws could close down around them, he fired.

Inuyasha was not a religious man. He was told at a young age that he didn't have parents, and that he had been a failed experiment from the very beginning. A poor funded project. They knew it the moment he took his first breath of life. He was created in a test-tube and he had gone through his young life without any mention of God, although even when it was brought up later on- it almost seemed inappropriate for him to believe in him. As far as religion was concerned, Inuyasha had none. But at the moment of desperate need, he found himself praying for some kind of intervention. He didn't know whom he was praying to; he didn't even know he was praying _period_ , but he looked forward, saw a threatening web of saliva and sharp fangs coming closer- and begged for a miracle.

What he got- was a bright, near blinding explosion of hot-white fire.

And it was brilliant, like a hundred suns bursting forth from the darkness of despair.

* * *

Miroku gazed at his favorite girl from beyond the cage and motioned for her to come closer to him. She complied perfectly, as they practiced many times before.

She growled lowly and a hot blast of air from her nostrils flared through his hair. He brought his hands up and carefully scratched at her neck.

Chi allowed it and seized her agitated rumbling. Then he slowly set a camera control over her massive head, and hummed soothingly so that she'd let him.

Once he had it locked on, he found her eyes following his every move and he stopped to give her a moment.

"It's going to be okay, Chi."

Her sister Ka in the neighboring cell was thrashing around irritably and put out an uncomfortable taint to the atmosphere, causing the dog in front of him some unease. His hushed her quietly and she stilled.

"You pet them?"

Miroku abruptly took his hand away and Chi snarled low in her throat.

"Isn't that dangerous?" Koga stood next to him, eyeing the dog demon with a mistrusting look.

"I raised her. From when she was a puppy." Miroku moved over to the next cage to do the same to Mizu with the harness. "She knows me."

"You don't agree with this at all, do you?" The wolf-demon trainer bent down to pick one of the harnesses up and handed it to the opposite man.

"What? Saddling up wild dog-demons and releasing them out into the open to hunt down an even bigger monster?" Koga recoiled at his tone and curled a hand into a fist angrily. "Mmm no, I guess you could say, I'm not all that agreeable with it. And I know for a fact that neither is Inuyasha."

"Well that dipshit isn't here, he's probably already dead due to his own stupidity."

Miroku gave a wan smile and shook his head, "Somehow I really doubt that, Koga."

"How long is this going to take?" He jumped subjects, turning his back to rerun the plan with the rest of the security unit that was bound to arrive at any minute.

"Maybe…" Miroku looked up in thought, hoping to stretch as much time as possible. "Two hours…"

"Make it one."

 _Inuyasha you better get here quick_...

* * *

The gas tank exploded as he had aimed, and with the shot of his rifle- the whole garage caught fire.

Naraku screamed terribly, and the high-pitched moaning sounds that pulled from his throat caused Kagome to break out in a dizzying sweat.

Inuyasha knew this was their chance to escape and they wouldn't get a second one. They had to make a break for the motorcycle still laying safely on the other side of the building.

The heat in the air was scalding, and his skin was burning. He flashed his gaze at Kagome who was half-way to fainting from the fumes. The fox kit was already passed out in her arms.

Inuyasha hulled them both over his shoulders and stared momentarily at the ring of fire that sprung up all around them, surrounding them like a deadly snake made of scorching oranges and reds. Hissing and snapping at him with yellow tongues.

He gave a warrior cry and leapt over it, landing heavily and feeling the soles of his boots melting into the concrete.

The joints of his knees wailed out in agony but he ignored them, the scent of burning hair weaved into his nostrils nauseatingly.

He bolted, ignoring the shrieking roars of the towering demon in pain beside him, blinded momentarily to all its senses by the explosion.

Inuyasha's vision was blurry but he could just barely make out the red motorcycle, and felt his heart beat like a snap drum outside of his chest. He situated Kagome over him bridal style, tucked Shippo into his front shirt, and revved up the engine in a panic, swerving away without even bothering to lift the kick-stand.

Behind them, Inuyasha could make out the demon charging up the road towards them. He looked forward and saw the dome of the aviary glistening under the dying sun.

If he led Naraku to the glass-made dome, he would crash into it, and release meat-eating raptor demons with _wings_.

Kagome had been jostled awake by now, and quickly pieced together problem. She fisted a hand into Inuyasha's vest and her eyes implored for him to turn. "Inuyasha! We can't lead him to-"

"I know! Damnit, I know," he ground his teeth together, his mind reeling with other ideas.

Fuck it.

He twisted the handles to violently veer to the left, and the bike ran off the road, crashing forward into a dense underbrush, surrounded by trees, and he felt a jolting impact. Then the front of the bike dropped sickeningly, and Inuyasha realized the back wheel was hovering over the air in an angle, with the other half hanging on the edge of the cliff. He gunned the engine frantically, but the wheel just spun in the air uselessly.

It was hopeless.

And slowly, the bike sank forward, deeper into the foliage, so dense that he couldn't see to the bottom of it.

Naraku roared again, very near now.

Under him, Kagome was sobbing.

His plan to lead the demon away had failed, and now he was going to be the reason they'd all meet a quick demise.

Inuyasha braced Kagome tight against his chest, gathering her so close that Shippo's fur engulfed his nostrils.

_He wouldn't let it end here._

Then he unlatched himself from his precious motorcycle, and jumped down while kicking it away, plunging into the darkness of the steep forest edge. He fell, hit a series of branches, and tumbled all the way down until he felt a sharp pain at the back of his head. He watched Kagome flash him the most worried look he had ever seen someone give him for a brief moment, before letting the blackness envelope him, and losing all consciousness.

* * *

_to be continued..._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...Talk about your cliffhangers.
> 
> Listen, for anyone reading this still, for anyone who's kept with this up until now:
> 
> Firstly, a huge apology from me to you. This took me forever to push out, and even now I'm looking at and I can't believe it's only 7k words. I wish it were more.
> 
> Secondly, Thank You. Your reviews, your follows, your favorites, and your little anon messages on tumblr have really put fuel in this tank to keep going with this. I hope I did well enough.
> 
> I'm on a bit of a runner's high right now, and I'm already working on the next chapter. This story isn't mean to be long- I mean hell, the movie is only 2 hours. So I foresee there being maybe 4 more chapters.
> 
> Please forgive any of my grammar mistakes, or spelling mistakes, or missing words or repeated words, I don't really have a beta and I proofread this quickly so that I could post it as soon as possible. I'm sure tomorrow while I'm at lunch I'll go back and straighten it up.
> 
> Shippo does not talk! He's just a little fox demon that I wanted to add for the excitement. Sango's going to make an appearance soon enough, and as for the InuKag feels, I hope I did it enough for you in this chapter. There's most certainly more to come, but we need to let it to grow, so it's taking a little bit of a while. It's chug-chugging up the mountain.
> 
> You can reach me at sankontesu dot tumblr dot com, if you want to discuss anything at all! I'm always excited to talk about my fic and where it's going.
> 
> If you hated this chapter, Listen To Me- I'm sorry!
> 
> Let me know how I'm doing ;)


	9. Love in the Time of Pterosauria

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Inuyasha and Kagome are getting a little close; and Sota's in a bit of a pickle.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 4700 words, I know usually my chapters are longer, but I felt I had to end this chapter where I ended it. Also just as a reminder, since we haven't seen the dogs in a while, Inuyasha has four dog demons and their names are: Kaze, Kizu, Chi, Mizu.

 

**_8_ **

**_Love in the Time of Pterosauria_ **

* * *

 

_Inuyasha felt himself drifting, like a piece of lank plywood out in a large expanse of salt water._

_His mind was warping in out of a thread of dreams, although sometimes when he stayed within them long enough, they shifted into what he could only assume were memories._

_A woman's face appeared, like a ray of sunshine in a midnight pit of shadows. A wave of nostalgia rolled over him and he fell down down down into the deep obscurity of his subconscious._

_The familiar face stayed below him, her lips opening and closing, but Inuyasha couldn't properly make purchase on what she was saying. Yet her muted voice rang like heaven and angels, and bacon frying on a Saturday morning. She smelled comforting and safe and warm. Home._

_He didn't want to leave this place, he barely even wished to move. He fell further._

_But someone was sobbing despondent cries over him, and it shifted the current of water around him, pulling him upwards, toward the surface- into a vortex of what he could only guess was an unwanted reality._

_No, not yet._

_Not yet._

_The woman at the bottom of the sea began to fade, her black hair bleeding ink into the ocean. The purple rim around her eyes glimmered into the dust._

_A shooting pain lit a fire into the side of his lungs and he gasped a mouthful of air as he broke the surface of the water._

* * *

" _Oh my God, Oh my God_ , Oh my God, Inuyasha? Inuyasha, please open your eyes. Inuyasha!"

Shippo whimpered and nudged his head onto Kagome's lap. A pitiful whine pulled from his throat.

"Inuyasha please-"

An intake of breath cut her off, and a pair of violet eyes shot open, gazing straight into the cuts and holes of the overgrowth above them.

The sky was dark.

The sun was gone.

"Shit," he seethed through his lips, folding upwards and almost colliding head-on with Kagome. "Shit, shit, _shit_."

"Oh thank goodness," Kagome gasped, propelling forward before she could stop herself, and encircling her arms around his neck. Hanging on tightly, she ignored the way his whole body went slack in her hold. "Inuyasha, I was so worried, you were out for so long-"

"How long?"

"Thirty minutes?" His hands came up to her arms and she undid them, loosening them until they were by her sides. "Maybe more? You hit your head really hard on a couple of branches and then landed stark on a rock." She trembled and anxiously began to pet the puff of fur on Shippo's head. "My little brother fell into a well once and he was out cold. Doctors said that the longer it takes to wake up, the higher the possibility of brain damage, every minute counts. And you just wouldn't- I was so-"

"Kagome," Inuyasha's eyes found hers. "I'm fine."

She scanned his face, the ear-less top of his head, his raven hair, and she finally put together what she had been curious about since the sun had sunk into the mountains. "You're human."

He nodded stiffly in affirmation and rose to his feet slowly, holding his temple as a splitting migraine wrapped around the back of his head. "Where's the demon?"

A low-pitched roar echoed over the land and the ground shook beneath their feet. In the distance a crash tore through the air, and at the horizon line: a plume of smoke mushroomed into the sky.

"The aviary," Kagome breathed.

Inuyasha glanced up at the cliff they had just jumped from and then back at his partner, "We need to climb. Now." His eyes fell on the fallen rifle on the ground and he bent to pick it up, throwing it over his shoulder once more.

Kagome's face was twisted with worry. "You can barely walk, how are you-"

"I can manage, are you okay? How are your legs?"

She looked down at them, "I'm okay. You held onto us…" Her face flushed scarlet as she trailed off and stretched her knee out. She cleared her throat and motioned to a track of mud near them, "I think the kids went back towards the park, not the aviary. It's not far from here, we should head over there…"

Inuyasha had already begun to analyze the patchwork of rocks in front of them, "Okay go first, I'll go up behind you in case you fall." He turned back to scan them and over, then as an afterthought said, "And unfortunately we're gonna have to leave the runt."

Both the kitsune and the girl shrilled indignantly.

"Not a chance!" Kagome scooped the small creature into her arms. "He'll hang onto me. Won't you, Shippo?"

The fox made a show of wrapping himself Koala style against the back of her neck and digging his face into her shoulder.

Inuyasha rolled his eyes and motioned for her to start, "Alright then let's go, before that thing makes its' way back here."

They began their climb, Kagome and Shippo above him, moving at a snail's pace and Inuyasha coaxing them with impolite grunts as they moved up the intricate pattern of vines, rocks, and weeds. Inuyasha watched closely as he made sure Kagome didn't reach for any plausibly loose ends, and when he noticed her hesitation the higher they moved up, he grew concerned.

"What's wrong?" He bellowed up.

Kagome braced herself closer to the edge and swallowed, closing her eyes and willing herself to continue. "N-nothing."

The newly transformed human below her rolled his eyes and with a free hand, nudged up the sole of her boot. "Then why are you stopped?"

She didn't answer right away and his impatience brimmed just past his lips, finding the will to stop himself before he threw an insult her way. Something in the way her shoulders trembled had him biting it back. He decided to change tactics.

"They're six years old," he heard himself say.

Kagome blinked and made purchase on another protruded stone, "Who?"

"The girls."

She nodded with a quirked brow, not sure as to what had sprung up the random statement but glad for it nonetheless. Shippo tightened his hold around her and she moved forward. "Did you watch them being born?"

"Keh. They weren't really born," Inuyasha said distantly. "They were made in test-tubes, just like me. But yeah, I was there when they first opened their eyes." He sighed. "I was the first thing they saw."

The warmth in his tone relaxed her further as she continued climbing.

He was distracting her by holding conversation. The idea in itself made her stomach flutter. What type of man _was_ this guy? He yells at her, belittles her, hugs her, protects her, _talks about his personal life in a way to distract her from being scared_ … "Did you become their parent?"

She heard him scoff, almost darting her eyes downward to catch the look on his face, but decided against it in light of how far up she knew she was.

"I guess so." He cleared his throat, "Sure as hell felt that way when they refused to leave my bed at night. Brats always preferred taking over mine than the one given to them."

The sudden image of Inuyasha with a puddle of white demon puppies all around him made Kagome giggle, not even realizing how easily the next pull upwards came to her, until she was head and shoulders over another stretch of rock bed. "I bet you loved it, though."

She couldn't see him but she knew he was rolling his eyes when she heard the small puff of amusement leave his mouth.

He ignored her last statement and continued, "Miroku might have been a bigger pain in the ass than the girls though."

"Why's that?"

"I was alone up until they came around. But at least they couldn't talk much. Then Kikyo assigned someone to help me with them. And Miroku could be worse than you are when it comes to babbling about absolutely _nothing_ in particular."

Kagome pursed her lips in indignation but let it slide.

"But he was good at keeping them quiet. He could read them pretty well." As they persisted up the incline, Inuyasha caught the red shine of his motorcycle and sighed sadly, eyeing at its useless and broken form against the tree next to them.

"He told me he named two of them," Kagome ventured.

"Keh," he said darkly, finally looking away from his most prized possession. "Took up issue with my choices in names and didn't let me name the other two."

"I like Kaze and Kizu."

A stretch of silence followed, almost as if Inuyasha were taking in her response with a strange sense of confusion. A bizarre feeling dropped into his gut and he knew he should have offered up a reply, or some sign of gratitude, but he couldn't form it. For some reason he couldn't yet identify, she had once again rendered him both speechless and blushing, and he wasn't all too comfortable with the latter.

The good thing was that Kagome had already crested the top and hoisted a leg up over the lip of the cliff, pulling herself sideways and rolling to safety. He felt a pent up sigh of relief leave him, one he had no idea he had been holding until now.

"You good?" He asked up, before meeting the top himself. She held out a hand for him and although he didn't require it, he mollified her by accepting.

"Yeah." She arched her brow with a small tilt of her lips, "Hey. Were you…talking to distract me from my fear of heights?"

Inuyasha went stiff before he shrugged noncommittally, "Nah." Something in his voice betrayed his response though, almost like he was smiling without smiling at all. Kagome shook her head with a grin, rubbing Shippo's fur with one hand and curling the other at her hip.

"Kagome, you're afraid of heights?" A slow lop-sided smirk creased his features as he sarcastically added, "I really couldn't tell."

"Inuyasha, you're just so full-" But before she could get the rest of the statement out, a familiar rumble trembled the earth once more.

Their eyes met and locked, almost as if holding each other's breath before a resonating crash echoed out through the field around them.

Inuyasha cautiously looked behind him, feeling a sliver of fear shoot into his spine with each passing second. The sight behind him left his mouth dry, his stomach plunging into despair.

The aviary in the distance had a cavernous hole in it, the moon's light reflecting off the glass, emphasizing an empty space at the apex with a shattered glass rim, and soon there was a twisting vortex of dark shadows that scattered from the cavity like mist into the night.

"Run," he breathed, twisting his face to look at Kagome with all the urgency in the world. "Run!"

Kagome felt Shippo's blunt claws dig into the skin of her neck as she took off in a sprint, her steps wider and faster with each stride. The kitsune's small body bounced on her shoulders as she leapt over puddles in the dirt, and Inuyasha raced after her; somehow still quick on his feet despite the waned demon abilities and previous concussion.

She cast a glance behind her shoulder to make sure the man was still behind her, his narrowed determined gaze meeting hers.

"Don't stop!" He hollered as the shadows began to cast over them, the sound of grating fangs flying close to the treetops. "Keep going, Kagome!"

But she couldn't, not without him right by her side. She wouldn't leave him behind in the dust, not after all he went through trying to save her life; so she lagged until their shoulders were stripe to one another. His raven locks bouncing loosely from his pony tail along with hers. And she had a feeling he could be running faster than he was, but he was keeping her in his line of sight too.

A creature in the darkness swooped down behind them, snapping at the space they had just left in their wake.

"Duck!" Inuyasha instructed, and they both slid head forward into a condensed bowl of jungle.

Shippo shrieked into the skin of Kagome's neck as they met the packed soil head first. Before she had a moment to reboot and take a survey of their surroundings, she felt Inuyasha tug firmly at her hand, intertwining his fingers with hers for a better grip, and yanking her up into another sprint.

She complied, channeling the chilling sounds in the darkness above them into a turbo boost, pumping her legs with every ounce of energy she had as they disappeared deeper into the foliage. The jungle was dense around them. The trail they were following began to narrow, the big palms edging closer, slapping their faces.

The pitch darkness was terrifying, nothing but mysterious shadows for a long unforeseeable distance, but somehow Inuyasha was navigating just well without his senses, leading and ushering her behind him.

It was then that she noticed that the ground beneath them was for the most part smooth like the gravel roads that they rode in on when they were on their way into the unmarked route of the wilderness. Inuyasha had found the main road back into the central portion of the park, and he was using that as direction. She should have let go of him then, knowing full well where she was now and in what direction they were heading. Able to maneuver the territory without his hold on her.

But she squeezed his hand tight with a biting fear that tore through her belly and he squeezed it right back.

* * *

The sight that greeted them when they finally arrived to the square was complete and utter chaos.

Bright fluorescent street lights blasted from all corners of the main square, perfectly illuminating the display of hundreds, wildly running from the dangers in the sky. Children screaming for their mothers, mothers screaming for their children, bird demons with steel cut wings swooping over them and snatching unwilling bodies from their roots in the ground.

Inuyasha and Kagome shuffled to the safety of a mini traveling shop roof.

"I have to find the kids." Kagome said with solid resolve. "And Sota."

Inuyasha wasn't too convinced and let go of her hand, glaring hard into the moving mass of frantic limbs in front of them. There was no way they were finding them in all this.

Kagome eyed a bench in front of her, high enough to stand on and search for distinguished heads, lying innocently underneath the silver spot of a flood-light. The shining blue of the park's logo reflected back at her, calling to her. She unlatched the terrified kitsune from around her neck and deposited him cleanly into the unexpectant hands of Inuyasha. The fox demon complained with a whine before crawling up Inuyasha's arm to situate himself on his head instead.

"What are you-" But Inuyasha didn't have the chance to finish his sentence as Kagome bolted, bee-lining to the bench with unmatched speed.

Inuyasha suddenly felt his heart seize up with a fear he had never truly felt as he watched a demon cast its awful giant shadow over her, its stretched claws open for capture. Without another thought Inuyasha flung the rifle back to its' destined spot on his shoulder, following the line of his arm, and shot the threat down with a single precise bullet.

Kagome continued to run towards the bench, almost as if unaware of the impending doom. Inuyasha grit his teeth, and reached up to pick Shippo from his head; he needed better aim and he couldn't do it under the roof of the shop, but he didn't want to endanger the fox either. He placed him softly among the many stuffed animals abandoned at the front of the store, and sternly commanded the creature to stay; hoping that even if the demon couldn't understand human language, he could at least decipher what he was trying to say from the sheer severity in the tone of his voice. Shippo camouflaged perfectly into the toys, curling his tail around his face in anxious wait.

Inuyasha turned back and stepped forward, clearing the way with raining bullets for Kagome, whom had made it to the bench and was now cupping her hands over her eyes to block the blast of the street lamp, trying to get a better look.

"Sota!" She cried out, forcing all of the air from her lungs. "Kohaku! Rin!"

Another demon circled her from above and Inuyasha blasted it down, unable to contain his smirk as it crashed to the ground with its iron weight and withering wail.

"Sota! Kohaku! Rin!"

Inuyasha scoped the surrounding area and shot at anything that got close to a guest, trying to protect anyone innocent and unfortunate enough to fall into the clutches of the flying terrors.

"Kohaku! Ri-"

_"Hey!"_

Kagome twisted with bated breath to find a teenage boy holding onto a little girl's hand tightly, covered from head to toe in dirt. She pointed to the one she had presumed yelled back at her with an index finger, "Kohaku?" He nodded uneasily. She pointed to the girl on his right, "Rin?"

She looked at the boy for approval before hesitantly nodding as well.

Kagome jumped from the bench and rushed after them, putting both of her hands on each of their opposing shoulders, "We've been looking everywhere for you." She trailed her gaze all over them, taking in their dishelved looks and scanning for any fatal cuts or bruises. "Are you okay?"

The boy flashed her a half-petulant, half-cheeky look, "For the most part."

Rin tilted her head with a blink and a shrug, "Give and take a few traumatizing experiences."

Kagome bit her lip and foregoe'd the fact they had just met five seconds ago, bringing them towards her chest in a tight overwhelming hug. The whole ordeal was both physically and emotionally taxing, and the relief she felt at seeing them both alive and well was indescribable. Kohaku forgave it due to her warm and pleasant nature, while Rin accepted the rare show of affection with enthusiasm.

"Kagome!" Inuyasha yelled at her with an exasperated tone to his voice. "Can you save the welcome party for when we're not being attacked?!"

She gripped both their hands and pulled the kids behind her the same way Inuyasha had done to her previously, "Follow me!"

Notwithstanding the manner in which Inuyaha held himself, she couldn't miss the perked cheeriness in his indigo gaze, nor the creep of a thankful smile on his lips, under the flamboyant glow of a streetlight. He was just as happy as she was that they had finally found them. Safe and not missing any limbs.

And it was just then while Kagome was agreeably considering the way the man in front of her looked, confident and charming and at ease- that a bird demon took advantage of his distracted state and pummeled him straight into the ground with a snapping ravenous mouth.

"Inuyasha!" She screeched pitifully, watching as he went down, his spine meeting the pavement with a thud. The demon squawked and growled low in its throat, cracking its' mouth over his face with the sound resembling a gunshot. It snarled viciously as Inuyasha tried to fend it off, crying out when the demon's talons raked against his belly.

Inuyasha held it back but barely, with his tight grip encircling the creature's iron thick neck. It continued to jump at him, its saliva splattering all over his face.

"Damnit!" He screamed, gnashing his teeth together and felt small and vulnerable under the unfamiliar weight. The demon seized forward again, its mouth open wide to engulf Inuyasha's face. It was halfway into flinging itself, before a blast of sharp pain exploded at its temple. It shrieked and fell to its side, dazed and only half conscious. But the fall only seemed to slow the demon down for a few seconds before it was on its two feet again, flapping its wings dangerously, and ready to attack whatever had ambushed it.

Kagome reached for the trigger of the rifle in her hold and shot it down with three erratically aimed bullets. Poised over Inuyasha like it was her life's job to defend him, she looked a vision. Sweat rolled down the sides of her face, her hair mused up like she had (and did) just run savage through the wilderness, death licking at her heels. Her eyes were narrowed and when she turned to scan over the man on his back, he caught the way the moon reflected off those beautifully brown orbs as she regarded him. His mouth was devoid of all moisture, and his brain had run away with his heart, leaving his head a hollow gaping hole that could only be filled with whatever thought was saturated with Kagome Higurashi.

It took him a second to realize her hand had been thrusted forward in a gesture to help him get to his feet. He blinked and swallowed, carefully gripping her and letting her weight lift him to his feet. She overcompensated for the pull and he had collided into her, using his hands to steady himself in front of her. They were body to body, the closest he had ever been to her, face to face. She had dark rich eyebrows, over a soft concerned gaze. Her lips were parted and pink and she was heaving slowly, every breath of air fanning his face with a warmth he had never felt in his entire life.

She licked her lips and Inuyasha couldn't look away.

"You okay?" She asked quietly.

He couldn't form the words to reply, so he merely nodded dumbly. He squeezed her shoulders, hoping he could translate the meaning through his grip alone. She relaxed into the hold and he felt her fingers come up to rest against his chest; he half-wondered if she could feel his heart leaping out of its ribcage to meet them.

This was one of _those_ moments, and they both seemed to come to that conclusion at the same time. Those Hollywood moments where the main characters put aside their suppressed feelings and gave into their instincts. Both their gazes went to their opposing lips. There was an unavoidable electricity that pulsed through them and into them and around them, goading them to stand closer, and become a single space rather than two individual people. The world fell away, and Inuyasha dropped one hand from her shoulder to place it over the smaller hand on his chest.

They drifted closer, and he _felt_ more than he saw his own eyes falling closed as her lips neared his and-

_"Kagome!"_

Kagome's eyes shot wide open and Inuyasha stared in confusion at the recognition in her gaze, suddenly feeling exposed and vulnerable. They jumped apart, and while Inuyasha was still trying to regain his footing and surroundings, Kagome was already twisting backwards, wildly looking around for the source of the voice that had interrupted them.

Her lips split into a smile, "Sota!"

A young man ran up the path towards them, his grin almost as wide as he was tall, his arms waving eagerly towards her. Inuyasha blinked away the fog that had descended upon his mind, unwrapping himself from the warm uncomfortable emotions that had constricted around him seconds before. The man even from a distance, in the dim lighting, resembled his assistant with astonishing alarm. Same hair, same eyes, almost even the same face, except his was more sharp and where her cheeks were rounder, his were higher.

Kagome huffed a laugh and dashed forward with giant leaping steps.

 _Everyone was safe! The kids! Inuyasha! Her brother!_ Everyone was okay and they were going to make it off the island alive and unscathed. Kagome had thought it foolish earlier to hope for an ending this jovial, but she thought herself even more foolish now for ever having doubting herself at all.

Then an enormous demon closed its talons around her little brother's shoulders and lugged him far and high into the sky.

* * *

Kagome had screamed her voice raw, her eyes stinging with tears, as the sight of her younger brother disappeared from view into the nighttime mist. "Sota!" She coughed and wailed, her knees hitting the dirt when a sudden exhaustion dropped over her like a nightmare; a crippling numbness slipping into her bones like she had just fallen to the bottom of the ocean, her lungs compressed and her movement compromised.

Inuyasha jumped into action, corralling the kids so that they stood under the safety of a roof, and then fumbled for the abandoned rifle on the floor.

"That's Abi's biggest bull. He'll be halfway to Japan if we don't bring him down right now!" He growled, the noise sounding foreign and unthreatening in his human ears.

He looked into the magazine of his firearm and reloaded it with another full round of bullets, cocking the scope up into the clouds. He tried to make out a shadow, but he couldn't see anything but the rolling purple haze of a cool summer night.

"Do you see him?" He asked roughly, searching the horizon.

"Sota…" Kagome whimpered and hugged herself tightly.

"Kagome," he tried again, although with a gentler tint to his tone. "Do you see him?"

The fox kitsune leapt from the safety of his cover onto Kohaku's shoulder, gesturing with a high-pitched squeak above them. His snout was jutted to a fixed point in the sky. Rin recognized him immediately and gasped. She followed his line of sight and yelled, "There he is!"

Inuyasha lifted the gun higher, and took aim.

It was colossal, and he wasn't even sure how he had missed it to begin with. He would have given anything to have his demon eye-sight at that moment. But right then he would have to rely on the magnified image in his scope. He breathed in, pulled the trigger back and fired.

* * *

Sota couldn't imagine what could possibly be worse than being snatched by the biggest bird demon the experimental park had created- watching with miserable terror as the land he had just stood upon became a tiny blurred dot beneath him.

The talons of the creature dug crudely into the flesh of his shoulders and he sobbed, trying to find his center and reaching for the open wounds. But the pain was dull, and whether it was the adrenaline of being fifty feet in the air, or the overall surreal-ness of the whole situation, the only thing he could feel was his heart breaking violently against his ribs.

He was going to die. He was either going to be eaten alive, or he was going to be dropped from the sky and become a red dead stain against the earth.

Sota clawed at the feet that held him, wailing and grunting with the effort. Every move seemed to dig the greasy black hooks deeper, and he was quickly being drained of the energy. The creature above him snarled at his antics, snapping down to stop him, but missing.

Then the familiar sound of exploding gun powder echoed into the sky, and a blinding ache ripped through his right shoulder. He opened his mouth wide in a scream at the same time that the demon howled, the sound seeming to vibrate the very clouds that enveloped them. Sota glanced in horror at the part of him that demanded his agonized attention. But he wasn't given a chance to examine it; the demon released him and Sota tore through the air at the same speed that it took gravity to yank everything on this good earth back towards the ground.

In his final moments, Sota could have sworn he felt the soft pelt of angels cradling him in a cream colored embrace.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sota interrupting InuKag is canon, ya'll. He deserved what happened. ;) Pterosauria is in reference to the flying raptor dinosaurs from the original movie. I used the bird demons that Princess Abi has in the anime/manga. So just picture them.


End file.
